An abundance of Goodgymers (14 of us!) met at Plumstead as the dark clouds rolled in.... but our luck was in and we had a fine, fluffy-clouded day. Our walking route took us along the Ridgeway which follows the Southern Outflow Sewer, part of an 82-mile London sewage system opened in 1865. It was a big deal at the time and the Prince of Wales attended the opening of one of four new pumping stations ('Cathedrals of Sewage') at Crossness. Although there was rather an abundance of litter and fly tipping on the first part of the route, it's a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SNIC) and we saw some butterflies and dragon flies but no hedgehogs or rare carder bees. An abundance of conversation and laughs along the way too!

The next abundance was blackberries - a handy snack along the secret path to Crossness. There was an open day on at the pumping station and the lovely man at the gate let us into the grounds to see the courtyard and get a sense of what goes on although you need 2-3 hours for a proper visit on one of Crossness' Pumping Days.

On the return leg, we stopped for abundant plates of food at friendly Thamesmead Social - a lovely cafe on Southmere Lake. This was where the 'abundance portal' (which maybe had been transmitting its vibes across SE London already) is to be found... who knew? We dispersed in various directions at this point with some of us walking back to Abbey Wood station to get the Elizabeth Line home - with thankfully abundant trains on a Sunday!

On a grey but muggy Sunday morning, three GoodGym-ers headed down to support Lesnes Abbey Woods junior parkrun.

After the usual lively warm-up at 9am, and the presentation of this week's milestone wristbands, the junior runners were off! We helped the wonderful volunteer team with both marshalling, giving lots of cheering and encouragement to the participants, and tail walking, ensuring that everyone was accounted for.

There were plenty of smiles as everyone completed two kilometres in their own way - by running, walking, skipping, and jumping. A wonderful 57 juniors took part this week, including two coming along for the very first time and five setting new PBs!

It was a lovely morning all round, which was followed by a quick coffee at Chestnuts Cafe before we all headed onwards to a GoodGym social walk along the Ridgeway.