For our second Slow Ways walk, we started in an uncommon location for GoodGym Ealing. We ventured out to Southall to follow the Soueal Two route, meeting at the Town Hall there. We were excited to find 3 first time GoodGymers there, Judy, Claire and Moona, plus a long lost returnee, Yvonna.

Once introductions were made and route navigation was sorted out, we set off on a tour of GoodGym Ealing tasks from the last 12 months. Apart from short stretches on Uxbridge Road at the start and The Broadway at the end in Ealing, the whole route was along canals, in parks or on residential streets.

From the start point, we turned into Southall Park, where Harvey volunteered at the 53rd Southall parkrun and then under the railway bridge towards Glade Lane Canalside Park. For those who didn't know there was a train line overhead, there was a bit of surprise when a train rumbled over our heads.

We were then walking alongside the Grand Union Canal over to Elthorne Park. We went past Three Bridges Park, where even longer ago, we'd litter picked by the Canal. The walking surface throughout the route was pretty good and there really weren't many issues to report to Slow Ways, however the tarmac along the canal path was pretty uneven in some places.

As we entered the Elthorne Park Extension, Sevan gave the GoodGym tool container a wave, then we charged up the hill past the saplings that we mulched during Tuesday's Group Run. We headed into Elthorne Park proper where we litter picked (yes another one) back in May.

From here on out, it was mostly walking through residential areas. We crossed Northfield Avenue and entered Radbourne Walk, next to Northfield Allotments which we'd help decorate last Halloween, then into Walpole Park where we've done many good deeds over the years. Through the Pikle, then past Bodyline, home of the GoodGym Ealing meeting point for Group Runs and Haven Green. Ealing Broadway station was in sight, but we decided that it wasn't our final destination today.

We convinced ourselves that we deserved some coffee and cake, so we stopped at a nearby coffee shop. After an easy going 7km walk, surprisingly there was more talk of walking over coffee, the West Highland Way this time. We were also educated on different methods of making tea and which spices to add to our chai for a true Indian flavour.

We hope that Judy, Claire, Moona and Yvonna will be back to help with our future good deeds.

St Mary's Church has long been a GoodGym Ealing regular task - we've done lots of work inside the church and in the gardens over the years.

This evening's task for our Mötley Crüe was pulling out nettles at the back of the church garden and removing some of the ivy at the front. With no time to MUSE on the task, the two teams were able to make a great difference to both spaces in the hour we had!

During all of the clearing work, we discovered some gravestones (Rolling Stones??) which had long been hidden showing just how long the church has been a part of Ealing's community, but not quite from (Queens of) the stone age!

Steve was very grateful and no doubt we will be back again to do some more over the summer!

What better way to end 2020, some might say it was a good(gym) way to end a bad year!

Here's how it went down:

• Big welcome to Sarah who took part for the first time today, she doubled up and dropped off two essential food parcels for us today!
• It was lovely to have Yvonna back with us today, she also dropped off to two families
• Shan and Miranda were our walking team today and made sure a family in West Ealing had the food they needed
• Chris and Liv took in a lovely route along the canal on their bikes to do a delivery in Southall
• Alex and Marieke took on their usual Acton delivery - They've made such a difference this year and we would be lost without them!
• Clare also doubled up for us today and did two drop - big kudos!
• Lucy joined us from Hammersmith & Fulham and teamed up with Harvey by bike for another Acton drop
• Chris helped us again this week with two drops - been great having her help over the festive period!
• And last but not least Michelle (and extremely cute sidekick Henry) dropped off the last essential parcel

Here's what Miranda had to say who took part by walking with her son:

A nice way to end the year and it was great to see we did a good deed!