Oveta McInnis gazes across the sparkling Virginia Water Lake on a Sunday morning. She exhales deeply and states, “You cannot appreciate nature in a Zumba class.” You do not comprehend all of this.

McInnis waits for the remainder of the London Caribbean Trekkers to catch up, their laughter and active chatter wafting towards her along the trail. She observes, “Many people have a mental barrier against walking, but it’s so easy and so beneficial.” In addition to exercising your body and mind, you also make new friends.

Despite the benefits, the British countryside remains predominantly white: according to research by the Campaign to Protect Rural England, only 1% of national park visitors are of minority ethnicities.

Even though people from minority ethnic backgrounds value the natural environment, many feel excluded and hyper-visible in what they perceive to be an “exclusively English environment,” according to a Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs study.

However, things are shifting. In the past few years, there has been a growth in the number of walking groups created by and for ethnic minorities, sometimes in response to lockdowns.

London Caribbean Trekkers are one of the smaller groups, consisting of 15 friends that walk once a month within an hour of Enfield, where the majority of members reside.

However, Muslim Hikers has nearly 5,000 Facebook followers. The club 100 Black Males, which was established to attract middle-aged black men to the Yorkshire countryside, has lately changed its name to Walk 4 Health since so many women wanted to join.

Sophie Brown started Bristol Steppin Sistas last year, and it has around 600 Facebook members. “I’d never seen women of color walking out in rural or coastal areas, so my sister and I decided to create a Facebook group during the lockdown, and it spread quickly,” said Brown.

Brown will launch a Bristol Steppin Sistas radio show with the Ujima community radio station in July and intends to become a full-time hike leader due to the group’s immense popularity.

“Women of color have been reluctant to enter strange areas where they feel exposed, evaluated, and remarked upon. This has resulted in us sticking in our lanes,” she added, describing instances of white walkers gazing and remarking as her group passed them on treks or stopped at rural bars.

Sheffield activist Evie Muir launched Peaks of Colour during lockdown; it has 340 Facebook members and organizes monthly treks and adventures in the Peak District.

“I founded the organization at a time when racial pain was at its peak: George Floyd had been murdered, and a right-wing gang had unfurled a massive ‘White Lives Matter’ banner atop Mam Tor in the Peak District,” she explained. Although the government advised one walk each day, there were so many barriers preventing people of color from accessing natural settings that we did not feel it was for us.

The obstacles were both physical and psychological: “To go hiking, you need courage and outdoor knowledge,” Muir observed. “If you don’t have those, and you’re afraid that if you get lost and ask for help, you’ll receive a racist answer, that’s a major disincentive to go outside.”

Black Girls Hike and East Midlands African-Caribbean Women’s Walking Group are two other groups created to assist ethnic minorities in overcoming these obstacles. The Wanderlust Women, an additional group founded by Amira Patel during the lockdown, has become so popular that it has altered Patel’s life trajectory.

Patel, who dons a niqab or headscarf, resigned her work and relocated to the Lake District to train as a mountain guide. “I had never encountered another woman hiking while wearing a niqab or hijab,” she remarked. It made me realize that many women don’t go outside because they lack confidence or don’t believe it’s for them because they don’t see someone who resembles them doing it.

Maxwell Ayamba, co-founder of 100 Black Men Walk for Health, attributes the increase in walking groups for black and minority ethnic groups in part to a heightened awareness of the inequities in health between white and black populations.

But, he continued, there is a second reason his club is gaining popularity: although the group was initially intended for middle-aged men, Ayamba discovered that younger guys were requesting to join.

“They realized that was one of the few opportunities they had to interact with responsible adults,” he explained. “They desired to learn from the lived experience of adults regarding the peer-to-peer violence they are facing. They are using walking to create a brighter future for themselves.”