It was another very impressive weekend for the Beach Buddies volunteers, with the most encouraging factor being the number of new faces we are meeting at the moment.
Eight new volunteers turned up on a cold and windy Saturday morning at Derbyhaven, including a number of local residents. Brilliant.
It was also fantastic that Malew Commissioners anticipated the session and delivered three large wheelie bins for us to fill! That's the first time this has happened anywhere on the Island, so a big thumbs up to Malew Commissioners.
The 36 volunteers collected 45 bags and any number of other items, including more than 30 plastic barrels, loads of fishing ropes and nets, and piles of pieces of boats that will never ever sail again!
On Sunday morning, the weather was much more pleasant as we tackled one of the litter "hotspots" on the Island, at Sartfield, Jurby.
Again, we had a great turn-out - 34 volunteers - which included another eight new faces. They all seemed to enjoy themselves, even though it's a bit of a slog dragging bags lig distances along the beach.
We undoubtedly need a quadbike to make life easier for ourselves on the beaches. This would give us the chance to just collect the rubbish and then the quadbike-trailer could carry the bags back up to be collected and recycled.
If any kind person would like to donate a quadbike-trailer then it would make a massive difference.
Special mention here for Glen Kinrade who was really suffering with a heavy dose of flu, but still turned up and dragged and massive bag of rubbish back and then disposed of the bags afterwards at the amenity site. Glen and his lovely lady Gill Coulson are great supporters of Beach Buddies in the north and their assistance is much appreciated.
We collected a massive amount of rubbish - 56 bags, plus dozens of plastic barrels, netting, ropes, lobster pots and, of course, traffic cones! Beach cleaning would never be the same without a traffic cone or two!
Next weekend we are planning to go south to Fisher's Hill where there are dozens and dozens of plastic barrels clearly seen from the road.
This will be on Sunday morning at 10.30am whilst on Saturday we are going to the Point of Ayre, meeting at the "car park" to the right (east) of the lighthouse.
The Point of Ayre, in particular, is a good place for anyone who has never been beach cleaning before, as it's easy access and lots of the rubbish is plastic which has been blown well up onto the coastline by the storms and is easy to pick up - and there is absolutely loads of it! Families and children are warmly welcome - even if you've never tried beach cleaning before.
Beach Buddies provides all the equipment necessary, and disposes of the items collected afterwards, recycling where possible. All you need is decent walking shoes and warm clothing - although the weather forecast at the moment, is very good.
