QAC Clean Up the River
On Saturday 26th September, as part of The Big Tidy UP, the Quorn Activity Club set about cleaning the river banks at Quorn, between the weir and Barrow upon Soar. At around 9.00 in the morning members of all ages set off in canoes armed with rubber gloves, litter pickers and plastic bags to clear this section of river. During the morning rubbish had to be ferried back to Quorn Hall as the boats were overflowing and there was still more debris to be found. Among the litter picked up there was an abundance of plastic bags of all sizes, a child’s see saw, balls of all varying sizes, loads of bottles (none with messages), plastic chairs and a computer monitor. The worst part was clearing the bushes of the thousands of plastic bags attached like Christmas decorations.
As the paddlers began to get weary we headed back to Quorn Hall to empty the boats of the haul of rubbish and then to clean and hose the inside of all the canoes, when all the work was completed and all the rubbish stacked it was time to enjoy a well cooked meal from the Bar BQ cooked by Shane our event organiser.
A day well spent both for the environment and the canoeists learning new skills as they manoeuvred their craft into tight and sometimes seemingly inaccessible places on the river.