On this grey, humid Saturday morning, 11 Goodgymmers assembled along the tow path outside Ham & Petersham Sea Scouts not knowing what was in store for them for the next 90 minutes! We were met by Karin and Russell from the sea scouts who explained what needed doing, and it turns out today's mission was a mixed bag of tasks that saw us split up into 4 lots, each tackling a different part of the site, parts of which are still under construction.

Ivy League: Anita was in a league of her own on ivy duty and started clearing and cutting the ivy away from the tree trunks. Pulling up the tangled snakes of ivy proved to be a deceptively demanding hard graft! But as always, Anita got stuck in and ivy no doubt that it was a job well done!

Holy Moley: Rebecca, Naomi and Sam headed into the thick of the woodland and set about their task of plugging the holes in the fence with large branches they had collected along the way. Gathering plenty of stray branches proved easy, but the challenge was in transporting and arranging them into a solid, fence-like structure that would stop children and dogs veering off the footpath and down into the bog on the other side! Rebecca didn't sit on the fence and took command as Lead Engineer of this tricky task that resulted in filling in two rather large holes!

What a re'leaf'!: Jack and Mena were tasked with using the composted leaves that had been previously swept up off the path to fill in holes in the ground near some of the trees. This task saw Jack and Mena go back and forth collecting composted leaves in a wheelbarrow and then spreading these to cover up the shallow holes.

Whack-a-Hole: The rest of the crew ( T, Ren, JP, Monika and Salwa) had their work cut out for them! What at first glance seemed like a fairly painless straightforward task turned out to be back-breaking, dusty work that saw them pulling, snipping, ripping, flipping, throwing, shaking, and kicking the evil rubber lattice mats that had been laid in the ground under a playground area that was no more, and that were now well and truly stuck in the mud! But the team were on it and weren't all out of faith as they kept pulling up the mats that were bound and broken on the floor! In fact, they managed to get the suckers out and proceeded to play a few rounds of Pokemon and whack-a-hole to dislodge the turf that was embedded in the small holes of the rubber lattice, while singing 'Can I kick it? Yes, you can!' Once the first layer of the wire mesh and rubber mats were removed, SURPRISE! There was a 2nd layer!! So they got stuck in and did it all again. By now, the other groups had wondered back and everyone got to have a go.

I suspect some of us will be a little sore tomorrow! Who needs the gym when you can get all your heavy lifting, pulling, squatting and stretching done and dusted before you can say 'mission accomplished'!

Well done team! What a great day's work :)