It had been a while since we last did our bit of tidying the local waterways as a club. but on a previous trip we had noticed a build-up of litter in the river Gade heading to Watford, so it was encouraged to tackle this. Four hardy souls set off from the Clubhouse to tackle what turned out to be an epic job, well done.
Phil had his canoe and was towing the club sit-on-top to operate as a dustcart. Dave and Brendan used the club canoe so they could tackle any potential foliage problems with saws and grabbers. Chris followed up in a kayak. Batchworth Lock was closed for repair and needed a long portage to get past. Aware of this Phil had set off much earlier so he could transport and portage the two craft. Dave and Brendan had to lug the Canoe down the narrow walkway next to the canal. Carrying a Kayak was easy!
The area next to the canal was tackled first and in amongst a significant number of leaves and plant life were numerous tennis balls, plastic bottles, glass jars/bottles and various other rubbish. There are some buoys and ropes there that are the trigger for the build-up. After tackling this area, we moved on 150 yards upriver to the second challenge which was being caused by a fallen tree blocking half the river and creating quite a build-up. This took a lot longer and Dave waded in to speed up the process. There were more tennis balls, glass and plastic bottles, shoes, polystyrene blocks, tree branches and various other litter items. These were fished out and placed in sacks. Most wood / tree debris was placed on the bushy banks to rot naturally. This activity released the natural collection of leaves, twigs to flow on down the river settling on the sides.
With both areas sorted we headed back to base with Phil towing the dustcart with five large sacks and some boxes of litter on board. Batchworth Lock provided another challenging portage with even more to carry, and then a paddle home to base.
The job was not finished as the collection had to be sorted by rummaging through the sacks. There were:
50-60 tennis balls which will be cleaned up and offered to a local school.
Several fishing floats and a spinner multi-hook.
One sack of glass bottles which will be recycled.
Two sacks of plastic which will be offered to a local charity that uses aquatic plastic to make boards.
15-20 single shoes/sandals that will go to the tip.
Two sacks of general rubbish that will go to the tip.
So overall a good day’s work and a fun paddle on a pleasant morning. There is still more to be collected, both on the sides and further up, but time ran out.
Well-done all for participating in trying to keep our waterways clean and clear of the plastic pollution we all hate.
This was an epic job by 4 dedicated people doing a little bit for our environment.
EVERY EFFORT HELPS.
CRH DH
Video HERE
Pic gallery HERE
Brilliant job, congratulations and thank you for your hard work Dave and friends, you are stars
Well done, I’d done Hunton Bridge to Grove Wharf on Friday with a couple of fishermen and I’m trying to link up with the local Canal and Rivers Trust who we brought our collection to. Great to see you detailing what the collection was, look forward to making contact soon.