On the second Sunday of October, we were back on the river at Trewint Street in Earlsfield, one of the Wandle Valley’s worst fly-tipping blackspots.

This time, just getting at the rubbish meant clearing a lot of invasive floating pennywort first – using an alarmingly large carving knife (found in the river) and a cut-and-roll-up technique pioneered by Zigi at Morden Hall:

Whilst Rachel interviewed Theo for a podcast on her Citybumpkin blogsite, some of our volunteers helped Gideon wash gravel for this year’s Trout in the Classroom programme:

.. and others dredged up a record number of dead scooters and even deader powerbikes: 6 or was it 7?

In the end, it wasn’t much of a surprise that we collected a record pile of rubbish, enough to fill 2 cage lorries generously provided by Wandsworth Council:

But not before Duncan had got to grips with his duty as a fishing conservationist, and rescued an endangered, slippery stowaway from one of those bikes!

Thanks to all our volunteers: Adrian, Alan M, Alex A, Alex T, Andy C, Andy P, Ann, Brendan, Brian, Carol, Chris, Denise, Diana, Duncan, Erica, Gideon, Greg, Gvantsa, Ian, James, Jane, Jessica, Jessica C, Jessie, John B, John M, Jon, Kate, Khadija, Mahelet, Manzari, Matthew, Max, Mike, Miriam, Nadeen, Nick, Nigel, Niki, Paul, Peter, Rebecca, Richard, Rigby, Rob, Robert, Robbie, Roy, Sally, Simon, Sophie, Theo, Wayne, and William.