Despite being ‘two men down’ our volunteers weren’t to be daunted and, after a pleasant chat with two friendly forest rangers (who had to speed off to another park to deal with a ‘flasher’), set out with their usual enthusiasm and commitment. Some might ask if it is possible to be enthusiastic about picking up other people’s sexual debris! Fair point!
We continue to be really pleased that the amount of sexual debris in the usual ‘hot spots’ is much less, and from what we’ve seen in the bins it does seem to be because it is being appropriately disposed of rather than there being less sex taking place, or worse still, less condoms being used. And our signs, encouraging users of the area to take their litter away, are still in place – maybe they are having an effect.
There were a few early cruisers around. Funny how the sight of we guys with litterpickers and bin bags changes people from being in ‘sleazy, head down, furtive look’ mode to ‘just having a brisk walk in the woods, head high, oh and just checking my change in my pockets’ mode!! And some who dived enthusiastically into some of the nooks and crannies hoping to find an orgy going on were disappointed that the only flexible friends sticking out were the litterpicking devices!
Some of the ‘hot spots’, even if less littered than usual, needed our attention.
Honeysuckle corner (if you are a daytime cruiser you will probably be able to identify this location at this time of year) smelled sweet, but contained its usual selection of litter – used condoms, tissues, condom foils, tissues, lube sachets, tissues, poppers bottles, tissues – and tissues too. How much cleaning up do some guys need to do (well, to be fair, lots judging by the colour of some of the tissues! Yuch!)?
Our tally of bags gradually increased as we moved through each of the areas.
(please note – we respect everyone’s right to remain anonymous if they wish, so we only include pics with express permission – just saying)
The rain came, as it so often does, just as we were enjoying our refreshments so the shelter of the cars meant that it had little impact.
Onwards after our refreshments to more of the same – this time to the left of the car park. We must have done a good job in the past because today’s edition of Time Out carries a two-page pic of one of the cruising paths – the area was so clean that we’ve made the news, and for a positive reason!
The only downside to today’s litterpick was that we like to get a pic, at the end, of the full tally – 14 sacks in this case (incredible!). But the rubbish lorry came and took most of the sacks away before we could take the pic. But there again, to be fair, most of us do like to have our sacks dealt with frequently!!
Please consider joining us at one of our litterpicking sessions – we are a friendly group and we believe we are having a real impact; making the area able to be enjoyed by all.