Welcome to Julie and Lucy for their first GoodGym outing, and Sophie for her first stroll with GoodGym Manchester! Hope you enjoyed the walk and look forward to meeting you again.

Today, as part of the GM Walking Festival, we took route number 14 of the Manchester Green Trail from Fletcher Moss Park in Didsbury up to Levenshulme, passing several green spaces in South Manchester 🌳 The weather was sunny and warm 🌞 so no waterproofs, woolly hats, or extra layers were needed (although we did come prepared). Water bottles, sunglasses 😎 and sun cream were much more necessary!

Passing through Didsbury Park up to Fog Lane park and beyond, we discovered a vast network of ginnels in between houses and estates, some tidier and more accessible than others.

Along the way there were conversations over running, doom scrolling, rambling, volunteering, improvised comedy, choir, dogs & cats, Bristol, plus much much more. A handy McDonald's along the way for a toilet break was a cheery relief too.

We ended to walk near Station South rather than Chapel Street Park as the bike festival 🚲 there was in full swing and the food and drink was certainly tempting following the 10 km walk.

We'll try to organise more walks in the Manchester area to visit other parts over the warmer and lighter summer months, so keep an eye out for those.

Seven hardy Goodgymers - including Jp who joined us for her first session - tackled some more lakeside weeding.

Over an hour the magnificent seven cleared another 100 odd metres of the edging stones. This stops weeds establishing and their growing roots from pushing the edging into the lakes.