‘I’VE EXPLORED PLACES I NEVER KNEW EXISTED’
Julie Dalphinis, 65, a retired safeguarding officer for the NHS, is a volunteer walk leader with Black Girls Hike. She lives in East London.
My father came from the Caribbean and, as a boy, walking was his main form of transport. When I was a teenager, my parents took my siblings and me back to the Caribbean, and we did some of their daily walks – three miles to school, another mile to move the goats, another mile to run errands.
My passion for walking really took off when I was in my 40s. In 2020, during lockdown, I saw a Facebook post from the organisation Black Girls Hike (BGH). I got in touch with the founder, Rhiane Fatinikun, who told me about her vision to get more Black women outdoors. It was a vision I
