Yes, it was that sort of mission...

Five GoodGymers braved the uncertain October weather to meet at the Cossall Estate Hall. The first one to arrive was our newest GG member, Emily! I was too busy trying to find out the contact for this mission, but I hope you had a warm welcome and enjoyed the mission despite what you found!

Once everyone arrived, we went to the back of the hall, where Jaki told us about the two tasks - litter picking and a bit of gardening. 4 GG members were put to the task of litter picking and Effie started off with the gardening. We took our tools - 4 litter pickers and 2 rolls of bin bags!

Left with 4 litter pickers and came back with 1 working and 3 broken...

We walked through Kirkwood nature reserve, where the Cossall Gardening team would like to make it more family friendly as the beautiful secret reserve is used for more inappropriate reasons. We started from one end and worked our way back. Our litter picking started off with the usual litter: plastic bottles, beer cans, random plastics and bottle caps... Then the heavier stuff came in with plastic bags filled with dog 💩, condom packets (from Durex to Playboy), shoes, a jacket, a towel and even a random bicycle wheel... And then it became worrying... As towards the end of our sweep, Emily found a used syringe left on top of a low wall. I became worried and told her not to touch it and we carefully disposed the item in the bin bag, which I threw away immediately.

25 Lambrini bottles at least - cheap, sweet and popular around this area

We filled bags and bags of litter, more than we thought we would find.... But it's all under the leaves, scrubs and places people normally don't look to find rubbish.

The hour and a half zoomed by, but we didn't depart before a standard group photo. Jaki was impressed with our efforts and would love us to come back to help the Kirkwood nature reserve attract the right crowds. In due time 😊