Onwoods and upwoods, pickers in hand

7 Goodgymers helped their local community in Barnet
Beattie
Rachel Melinek
Rupesh
George Ttoouli
Subham Basu
1 / 6
Barnet

Tuesday 28th April

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Beattie
Beattie

WELCOMER

Rachel Melinek
Rachel Melinek

PHOTOGRAPHER

SOCIAL MEDIA

WELCOMER

Rupesh
Rupesh

BACK MARKER

George Ttoouli
George Ttoouli

SESSION ORGANISER

PHOTOGRAPHER

DOCUMENT CHECKER

REPORT WRITER

Barnet runner

PHOTOGRAPHER

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Report written by George Ttoouli (he/him)

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We started this one from the artsdepot. Brilliantly, no one got lost and went to the Phoenix Cinema, or brought more than they could carry - at least, no one we knew about. 5 Goodgymmers gathered - regulars Beattie and Rachel arriving first. Was great to see Rupesh, who joined us for the first time in a while and will be getting stuck back into missions. Subham finished the set, running from Finchley Central to join us, arriving ready to go.

We warmed up a sunny patch outside the artsdepot, then we set off on a 2km run to the Porters Way entrance to Coppetts Wood. We were met by Julian, one of the Coppetts Wood Conservationists, along with Filip and Chloe for their second session this month - they'll be earning their free t-shirts in no time!

Julian introduced us to the history of Coppetts Wood and their volunteer group - who meet for 3hrs every Sunday at 9am at the entrance off Porters Way. More labour welcome, if you're free - details here.

Then we trekked through the wood to the North Circular for our clean up, and found our first challenge: a dumped motorbike. This had been removed by volunteers once before, but magically found its way back into the woods, so we removed it again and reported it. Then we scoured the bushes and undergrowth, picking most cans and bottles from inside the fence. We hauled out a discarded roadworks barrier and before long we'd hit our time limit, so we stored our stash by the sign and reported it.

Then, given our unusual end point, Rachel and Beattie found a bus to take them home, while Subham, Rupesh and I ran back through to the Colney Hatch Lane entrance, taking the scenic route. A glorious run through soaring woodland flowers and darting birds, after which, Rupesh headed home eastwards, while Subham and I completed the circuit back to North Finchley for a pint, with Filip and Chloe walking to meet us.


This task supported
Coppetts Wood Conservationists
A group of volunteer conservationists managing a local nature reserve for biodiversity

We look after Coppetts Wood Nature Reserve on behalf of Barnet Council. Meeting up every Sunday morning we create wild flower meadows, dead hedges, plant and coppice trees and make sure main paths are made accessible. We have also put up many bird and bat boxes, the latter helping to encourage the nesting of our different bat species.

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