On a December Sunday morning, GoodGymers Mohamed, Steph and Kash met Greenwayers Richard, Sue and Alex near Brent Viaduct to continue their quest of shaping the Pear Tree Park paths. To say that the recent storms and floods spared the riverside trail that our teams had been working on would be too optimistic. Luckily, the woodchip we had spread last month survived, after being covered by water, so today we had to walk through only a few muddy sections.

Further down the path, the situation didn't look so well as part of the trail suffered from what is bread and butter for the White Cliffs of Dover: erosion. There was also a large fallen tree arching over the walkway, which didn't look particularly safe. Richard brought us to that location so that we could fix that. Removing the fallen tree didn't seem like a job for six people with saws and loppers. Our options were:

• creating a diversion closer to the water and hoping that the river would not swallow it anytime soon
• creating a diversion towards the park, additionally allowing visitors to enter the pathway at that spot

The second choice was more sensible and we immediately set off for lopping, sawing, breaking, hacking, pulling and forking. Richard, as usual, gave us a very comprehensive health and safety briefing ahead of time, so everyone was careful when performing all the feats of strength and wit required to remove dead trees and brambles on the way. Minute after minute, the visionary path was becoming a reality and we saw the light at the end of our way towards the park.

It took us only an hour to create a passage, so we spent the rest of the allocated time making it wider and safer. We said goodbye to a few extra rotten trunks at the sides of the new route and cut off all the overhanging branches we could reach. If someone tells me that the activity was not satisfying, then they may as well repeat after Mick Jagger that they can't get no satisfaction.

Key achievements:

• The dangerous path under the fallen tree has been blocked
• A new, safe path towards the park has been created
• No one lost an eye