The Deeds of GoodGym Ealing, Past, Present and Future

7 Goodgymers helped their local community in Ealing
1 / 10
Ealing

Saturday 25th February 2023

Report written by Sevan

Share the love

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.


Session Leader
Ealing
TaskForce
Run leader
This task supported
Slow Ways
Help create a national walking network

Slow Ways is an initiative to create a national network of walking routes connecting all of Great Britain’s towns and cities as well as thousands of villages. Using existing paths, ways, trails and roads, people can use Slow Ways routes to walk or wheel between neighbouring settlements, and combine them to create longer distance trips. It’s designed to make it easier for people to imagine, plan and go on walking journeys. There are currently over 7,000 Slow Ways stretching for over 100,000km. This network of routes was created by 700 volunteers during the Spring 2020 lockdown, creating a unique Slow Ways map in the process.

See more
Attendees
Claire Bourzeix
Moona
Yvonna Balysz
Kash
Judy Isaac
Madhan
Sevan
Join us on our next session

Ealing

Bank Holiday Monday: leafletting to promote free community activities in Ealing Broadway
🗓Monday 6th May 10:00am

It will help a non-profit organisation spread the word about the free community activities at Ealing Sharing Space.

KashStephDucatAlan ArmstrongSevan
4 GoodGymers are going

Discuss this report
Madhan

Sat 25th Feb 2023 at 9:02pm

That's a short history of good gym missions embedded in this walk. Nice read

Sevan

Sat 25th Feb 2023 at 11:26pm

Yep. I didn't realise it at the time. When I started writing the report, I remembered that we'd been to a lot of these places recently