On a wet and windy Wednesday evening, 3 Goodgymers carried out a litter pick along part of the Grand Union Canal and a section of the NCN route 41 in support of the Canal and Rivers Trust and Sustrans.

After a quick catch up on everyone's Christmas news during the warm up, we ran a short distance to the Tachbrook road canal bridge in Leamington where we started our pick.

Unfortunately James had forgotten his headtorch, but not to worry because Katherine had hers which she switched on and, oh, the batteries had run out...

Thankfully Nigel was our shining light (quite literally) being the only one out of the three of us with a working headtorch. So tonight's litter pick really put teamwork to the test with Nigel having to direct his head the right way for everyone to see where they were walking along the canal path (dodging where possible the huge puddles) and also picking out the bits of litter.

Having got as far as Morrisons at a rather slow pace due to the light situation, we decided the most sensible thing to do was take a detour along the Sustrans cycle route to carry on picking litter along the beautifully lit path.

Having collected 3 bags of rubbish, we headed past Foundry Wood to Victoria Park where we did a quick lap of the park. There were lots of other runners also trying to get their exercise in with headtorches around the park which made it feel a bit like we were in a surreal night running race.

Note to self - must remember to charge headtorch before Goodgym in future!

This evening 2 Goodgymers donned their headtorches and high vis to walk the length of the Grand Union Canal between Leamington and Warwick, collecting rubbish as they went.

Interesting finds this evening included a giant nitrous oxide cannister, 5 coat hangers and a pack of 3 scourers - no idea how they got there!

With the rubbish collected and bagged we headed the 1 mile back towards the centre of Leamington. It's certainly getting colder in the evenings now but thankfully the weather was kind and we managed to stay dry :-)

2 Goodgymers joined the ducks along the Grand Union Canal for a litter pick.

We started the session with a good run out through Victoria Park and along the river before meeting the canal to reach the Emscote Road bridge in Warwick. From here we plogged our way back along the canal towards Leamington.

It was great to see that the canal had stayed relatively clean since our pick a few weeks ago, but some of the litter hot spots along the route didn't fail to deliver and we still managed to collect 2 full bin bags of rubbish. We also enjoyed spotting some of the pretty flowers that were still in bloom along the canal.

It was then a short jog back to the pump rooms for a quick cool down.

This evening 3 Goodgymers plogged along a stretch of the Grand Union Canal and parts of the NCN Route 41.

Our previous picks in these areas have often given relatively small amounts of rubbish but this evening there was unfortunately more rubbish than we've ever seen! Perhaps it has been the recent warm weather but we managed to fill 4 whole bin bags.

We also found some more unusual items this evening. Nigel found a full bottle of Radox shower gel and decided that it was too heavy to carry, so attempted to empty it out and managed to pour half of it over his shoe. Not only did this give him soggy feet, but with a bit more walking and running his shoes started to produce bubbles!

We found a real haul of Kinder Bueno wrappers - by which we mean 8 or 9 large packets that originally had 8 bars in each. I wonder who ate 64 Bueno bars and then left the wrappers?!

Allan was gradually putting together an entire wardrobe, having collected a jumper, coat and pair of trousers at different points along the canal. We also found an unopened bottle of cider. Having learnt his lesson from the shower gel, Nigel decided to put the bottle of cider in his bin bag whole. This seemed like a good idea, until later in the pick having been shaken up from being carried around the bottle exploded, pouring yet more fizzy bubbles of a different kind onto his shoes!

It definitely felt like a productive pick this evening and we will hopefully be back again in the not too distant future to keep on top of the rubbish - hopefully with slightly fewer bubbles next time :-)

2 Goodgymers enjoyed a beautiful evening strolling along the Grand Union Canal between Leamington Spa and Warwick, picking litter as we went.

Starting at Tachbrook Road bridge after a short jog from the Pump Rooms on the Parade, we picked our way along the canal towpath. Given the lovely weather there were lots of people out running, walking and cycling along the canal, including two people that went whizzing by in their kayaks before we were able to get a photo! Many people we passed were extremely appreciative of our litter picking efforts with words of encouragement which was lovely and gave us that feel good fuzzy feeling :-)

Unusual pieces of litter included an entire lunchbox with what looked like a lunch of left overs from the previous night's dinner - no idea how that got there - a tennis ball and a champagne cork!

As always, there was lots of wildlife to enjoy along the canal including a swan with her 7 (now rather large) cygnets.

After picking our way all the way to Warwick we left the two bags of rubbish that we had collected in a secure place ready for collection by the Canal and River Trust tomorrow and enjoyed a jog back into town. Taking in Victoria Park on the way back meant we could have a nose at all the exciting setting up ready for the Commonwealth Games bowls event which is taking place there in a matter of days. We also admired the brand new play equipment in the park which was being well used by lots of children and big kids alike.

Another beautiful evening in this little piece of the countryside right within our towns - lovely!

On a beautiful sunny evening 3 Goodgymers took to the canal towpaths between Leamington Spa and Warwick with their litter pickers to complete a plog in support of the Canal and River Trust.

With our new meeting place outside the pump rooms on the parade we had a great space to be able to complete our usual warm up and catch up on cat antics over the Easter period before jogging over to the Tachbrook Road bridge. From here we picked along the canal towpath towards Warwick. More unusual finds today included a ski glove, a toolkit and what appeared to be the entire contents of someone's shopping bag floating down the canal including a pepper, an onion and an orange.

We also spotted plenty of wildlife including a group of excited lambs running around the fields, a heron and a swan.

The bonus challenge for this evening was hunt the yellow part of our litter pickers that kept dropping off the end of the picker after we tried to pull tricky items free from tangled branches. This involved re-tracing our steps a number of times and by some miracle, we managed to get back to the end point with all pickers still intact! James also managed to save a full bag of rubbish that had been dumped over the side of the road bridge and had wedged itself on a water pipe above the towpath.

Having collected 4 bags of rubbish, we took a different route back towards the Pump Rooms via Victoria park and covered a total distance of 4 miles.

We look forward to seeing James Back in Black after completing his 50th Good Deed with Goodgym and earning his new black t-shirt. A huge well done on all those good deeds that you've completed James and here's to the next 50! :-)