Canal Culture

497 days since our last group run and we were back out getting fit and doing good- just about!

On a truly weird weather day in Leicestershire, almost all of the county basking in a heatwave but with one village experiencing a 90 minute storm of golf ball sized hail stones damaging cars, properties and causing flash floods, we were off for a short run commute along the River Soar and Grand Union Canal. This is one of the great routes for us as we can go anything from two to five kms from our city centre meeting point at DMU Leisure Centre entirely off road - city centre running without cars, lorries, traffic lights and other assorted nuisances!

We are working our way along a 300m section of wooden sleepers on the towpath of the Grand Union Canal, staining them for our friends at the Canal & River Trust. During the various stages of lockdown we've continued this project on various sections of the waterway up through Abbey Park and into Belgrave and it's such a relaxing way to spend a bit of time by the water.

Tonight Stu and Dave got to work cleaning down the sleepers with wire brushes before grabbing a paint brush to join Jen and Huw with staining the wood. Mel headed up and down the canal path litter picking the various discarded junk making such a beautiful part of the city look a little unsightly.

Our next visit here will need some greenery removing to access the sleepers - this sentence is literally only in the report so somebody will remind Huw of this fact ahead of the visit so the appropriate tools are brought along!

It's always nice to be appreciated for the volunteering we do - tonight's example took a little working out to start with. Jen heard a voice. Huw heard a voice. There was nobody on the towpath in sight. Puzzling. Ah, behind us, over the water, some garden gloved hands waving over a fence at the back of the houses the other side of the water.

"I thought it was coming home?" the voice shouted.

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We clicked, it was a reference to our last visit, on the night of one of the England football matches that they won. It's become a little tradition to leave a little message right at the end of the task and that night we'd painted "It's Coming Home" on the sleepers.

"Haha, yeah, it didn't come home did it!"

"Well thank you so much, you guys are doing a great job!"

Glad our little two minutes of cheeky fun at the end of the task put a smile on someone's face and lovely for them to pop out and see us to share their appreciation!

Well done gang!

HD