By Afrocats volunteer Mia
We met in Piccadilly Gardens where the Afrocats coordinators informed the participants of the safety precautions to be safe on our walk. Both had received first-aid training thanks to the funding from Sport England and the Canal and River Trust. At 1 pm we were off - Edel took the lead and Loren went at the back making no one was left behind!
We headed down canal street, Manchester's gay village and we'd hoped to join the canal there but the heavy rain showers had meant that the footpath under Sackville Street had a huge puddle, and we didn't fancy getting wet feet! As we walked through the city centre the ladies started asking questions about the areas and the walk turned into a tourist tour.
We joined Rochdale Canal at Oxford Road and this is when the walk became fun as we listened to the sounds of the water being pulled down by gravity. As we approach closer the sound was getting louder and louder. We all couldn’t believe the view of the beautiful canal and we saw Canadian Geece too.
Here we took a break and started warming up with stretching and dancing led by Ms Magdalen. We all enjoyed the dancing meanwhile, Ms Ali was making sure no moment was missed, and she created memories with her pictures.
We walked until the canal joined with a different canal, meeting at the Merchants’ Warehouse one of the oldest warehouses in the Great Manchester. We continue the walk towards Catalan Square and onto Castlefield Basin where we came up with an activity to run up the stairs before we walked to the Science and Industry Museum.
During the walk, most of the ladies expressed their excitement about the walk with lots of dialogue and taking pictures. One of the ladies was a bit quiet so the coordinators spoke to her to see how she felt about the activity. She responded that she loved it! She then surprised everyone with the running up the stairs activity where she came first.
Thank you to Sport England and the Canal and River Trust for making this project happen!
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