Monday, August 10, 2009

Cleaning the Wandle August 2009

My poor bones are aching, but in a good way, from five hours cleaning the Wandle on Sunday under the auspices of The Wandle Trust. It was a beautiful day for getting on the waders and doing some serious shopping trolley retrieval.

Cleaning the Wandle August 2009 1
Essential rubber wear ;-)
I got some strange looks from my colleagues today when I said I spent Sunday wearing shorts, a t-shirt and rubber.

Cleaning the Wandle August 2009 2
The team in the water
A good turn out and some excellent team work. Some in the river and some on the bank and some land-side acting in relay to ferry the haul from the river to the bank to the rubbish assembly area.

Cleaning the Wandle August 2009 3
A very heavy old old boiler
Right at the eleventh hour the stragglers unearthed this monster. Initially full of water and sludge it got lighter with patience as it drained. Even so it took four of us lifting plus half a dozen hauling on the grapple rope to get it up the bank and over the railings.

Cleaning the Wandle August 2009 4
Part of our collection of ten shopping trolleys
Plus all manner of junk, debris, rubbish, scrap and general detritus. It is appalling what people will simply chuck in the river! Many thanks to Wandsworth Borough Council for providing a truck to cart away all the rubbish.

A full set of pictures on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8179454@N02/sets/72157621877528459/detail/
Apologies for the quality but they were taken with my iPhone not a proper camera.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It always amazes me how a shopping trolley arrives in the river in the middle of the countryside. Do people go out their way especially to dump them, or does someone on their way home say 'b*gg*er this' and gets rid of their shopping? Why are they taking trolleys home anyway?

Trolleys in Irvine don't work ouwith a certain point, I think there is a magnet of some sort that triggers the brake. You can see one of these points on the wall surrounding the Trinity Church at the start of the Mall.

Very impressed with how you and Mary spend your Sunday.