CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Hello and welcome to Nature Fix with me,
Claire Hickenbotham. Every month we take you with us as we meet
the people who spend their time outside and join them in a place
that most inspires them.
Today we're in the heart of South London to meet Lucy and
Yaz, the co-founders of a hiking group for LGBTQ plus women,
trans and non-binary people. After posting a call out on
social media, their hikes were an immediate hit, creating a
much needed community in the outdoors.
They now take over 200 people to natural wonders just a two hour
or less train ride away from London. But it's not always a
picnic. As we walk, we hear about soggy Doc Martins, a
wedding that nearly leaves them stranded in Balcombe, and pride
in unexpected places.
LUCY: I'm Lucy, I'm one of the co-founders of Dykes Who Hike.
It's a LGBTQ plus women, trans non-binary people hiking group
that we founded just over a year ago.
YAS: I'm Yas, one of the co-founders of Dykes Who Hike.
We're in the middle-ish of Clapham Common, kind of near the
boating lake, I don't know if that's a boat making that noise.
Yeah, there's lots of people out walking tonight.
LUCY: It's been a very rainy day, so I think people are
making the most of walking their dogs now. It's not pouring with
rain. You can hear a lot of noises all the time, a lot of
ambulances going past.
YAS: A few Lime bikes.
LUCY: A few near misses of the Lime bikes. It is pretty dark
right now. It's quite cute because you can see all the
lights. I was thinking actually, when you look that way,
Clapham's looking quite beautiful and the reflection of
the water and stuff like that. But it is very dark. I'm
grateful for the streetlights.
YAS: You're much more optimistic about the dark nights than me.
LUCY: There's something I like about the dark. I just really
like being part of something and seeing how many cars are
constantly travelling.
When I was little, I used to live in the middle of nowhere
and I'd wake up in the middle of night and I'd still be able to
hear some cars go past and I'd be like, OK, someone else is
awake at the moment. And it kind of feels like that, where you're
in the middle of... something but you know there's still
everyone out there living their own life.
YAS: It does feel like that when you can see, I don't know a big
distance or see loads of cars go by a lot of life being lived
around here.
LUCY: Last year, one of my main new years resolutions was that I
just kind of wanted to meet more queer people. So, I joined a
basketball team for queer people and that's where I met Yas.
And I remember we did the session, and I'm just like not
very gifted in the sports world but I do really enjoy it. But, I
remember just feeling like it was really fun it didn't really
matter if you were good or you were bad And I met Yas literally
was it the first week we literally went to the pub
It's funny because you said before that you saw me and
thought I wanted to be your friend but I saw you and I was
like I want to be Yazs's friend
Yeah we just started seeing each other every week at basketball
and to be honest like we organized a hiking group I don't
think we'd ever hung out outside of basketball
YAS: We just sort of started it half as a joke. We're like, if
nothing else, we'll just go for a nice walk.
LUCY: Yeah. Some of it was I'd moved to London not that long
ago, but I started to realise there's so many places that are
so close to London that are really easy to get to, and I
wanted to see them. But also just wanting to meet new people
and get outside.
There's loads of things out there now to try and meet new
people, but at this time, at least, when we were setting it
up, it felt like a lot of them were quite alcohol-based or
nightlife-based, and we almost wanted something during the day.
And hiking felt like a good..... good opportunity to tick a lot
of things off our list.
YAS: We both wanted to do more hiking but we just wanted to do
it with the kinds of people that we would play basketball with.
And we're like wouldn't it be great just to go hiking but with
this lot. And kind of funny we were at the pub chatting about
it and there was a few other people at the table that were
like, "yeah yeah we'll go on the hike."
And then when we actually did the hike none of them came and
it was all just strangers of TikTok that came and like none
of our actual friends were there. I mean, they've all come
on something now, but...
Yeah, on the first one, it was all just people on the internet
that kind of had the same, I guess, desire to just meet new
people and go for a walk.
LUCY: Yeah. If you're going on a hike it feels a lot easier to
kind of like meet people and have conversations and like it
actually feels easier to get to know people because I think
sometimes if you're meeting up and you kind of go to the pub or
whatever and you sit down you're sat and that's it.
Because actually, if you're on a hike you're moving every minute
and there's always something new to see and something new to talk
about. If you're not necessarily vibing with someone you can like
tie up your shoelace and then meet other people on the hike.
YAS: A tactical shoelace.
LUCY: A Tactical shoelace.
If anyone listens and sees us tie their shoelace.
YAS: Yeah, maybe wear velcro from now on.
When we go on one of our walks, it kind of feels like a big
school trip. There's kind of about 200 people, everyone
brings their packed lunch and we all get the train together and
then we just go for a big walk. In the summer, we do lots of
coastal walks, so we end up in the sea. And then go to the pub
afterwards. But yeah, it's just like a big joyous affair,
really.
The feeling when you get to the meeting point or like you see
everyone on the train, in the beginning I found it so
nerve-wracking.
I was just like oh my gosh all of these people, this is kind of
overwhelming but also just really heartwarming because
everyone's just smiling and like everyone's chatting and over
half come on their own and it's really cute to see that like
right from the get-go everyone's just chatting and open to making
friends and connections and stuff.
Our first walk was the Seven Sisters hike from Seaford to
Eastbourne.
LUCY: It's like 21 kilometres or something like that, like it is
a long one. And, I mean, spoiler alert, but I think there's eight
sisters that you have to walk up and down.
YAS: I'd started doing that route a lot when I was back home
living with my mum and I'd always walk from Eastbourne Town
to Birling Gap or the Cuckmere, I think once. But then when I
said to Lucy, oh we should do this, it's beautiful, it is a
gorgeous route.
But I forgot that, we wouldn't be coming from Eastbourne, we'd
be coming from Seaford. And there's basically like a massive
river, which I had just completely forgot we would have
to go around. It basically added four kilometres to this already
very lengthy hike. People didn't really realise that we were
actually going to go for a proper walk. People were in
their Converse and Doc Martens.
LUCY: Converse and Doc Martens were working overtime that day.
At that moment I think it had just started pouring rain. There
was like an angry swan and we had to walk past it all and I
remember thinking... This is really interesting, like I'm not
sure what we're doing right now. It all just kind of worked out.
YAS: When people turn up again on a walk, like people that were
on that first walk and then they come to another walk where it
was like, wow, you have a lot of trust in us that you came back.
We learned a lot of lessons that day.
LUCY: Yeah, we're in the middle of Clapham Common. I feel like
this is the heart of Clapham Common. It's weird to see it
kind of quiet because normally when I come around here, it's
like buzzing, like you're lucky to get a bench.
We've got the big grandstand, I guess. I've seen people do...
gymnastics and band performances and stuff on there which is
really cool. And then they're a lovely little cafe where you can
sit outside in the summer like listen to music and all these
lmassive trees.
YAS: Some big trees
LUCY: Beautiful leaves right now. I wish it hadn't rained
because then they'd be so crunchy to step on which is like
one of my favourite things but alas, it's been raining all day
it's not quite the same..... but still pretty.
I moved to London and I was like, OK, well, I've heard the
word Clapham before. And then when I was looking through Spare
Room, I saw Clapham Junction and I was like, that sounds similar
to places I've heard in London. So I just got the room and I've
lived in Clapham Junction ever since.
So this is one of my closest parks. So I come here a lot, go
for walks with my friends and my housemates and always get a
coffee and just wander.
I think there's something really nice about that. I try and do
quite a lot of meeting people for a walk and it's quite a good
spot to be able to do that.
YAS: There's a feeling that you get in London parks that does
feel different to parks elsewhere because I think people
are so thankful for the space and the greenery and people are
always using them.
In the summer it looks like a festival or something. No matter
what park you go to, it's always just rammed with picnic blankets
and people catching up and walking. It's nice.
I guess my initial connection to nature, I really didn't have
one. As a kid I was always inside watching TV. It really
wasn't until I was older. And then during one of the
lockdowns, I was listening to a podcast about how being by water
is really good for your mental health.
And then that really sparked for me wanting to go on walks. I
grew up in Eastbourne, so it's coastal. And yeah, being by the
sea was really calming. And that for me was when I really got
into hiking. And if I go on holiday, I always want to try
and get a big walk in.
LUCY: It's kind of funny you're talking about being younger
because I remember when we were little. Me and my little
brother. My mum would be like, go outside and play. And we'd be
like, no, I don't want to go outside.
She basically forced us to go outside for like an hour or
whatever. And in the end, as soon as we were outside, we did
really like it. We'd always play a lot of imaginary games and
stuff like that. But then as I got a bit older, I feel like
it's easier just to stay inside.
I live in the middle of nowhere. I basically had one road that I
could run up for two and a half kilometres and then I'd turn
around and just run back and that was as far as it got.
And it wasn't actually until lockdown that I was back in
Suffolk. And, I suddenly realised there were so many
public footpaths around my house that I'd never really noticed.
And so every day I'd do one of those footpaths.
Since then I've just always wanted to be outside in some
form. Even in London, if there's a way I can cut some of the tube
journey and do some of it walking instead. Just being
outside, just trying to get some form of fresh air I think is
really nice. It just makes me feel better set up for the day.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Dykes Who Hike was always meant to create
community, but it's exploded in popularity. The first hike had
60 attendees, the second had over 200. What is clear is that
this space for LGBTQ plus women and trans non-binary people is
not just creating community in London, it's giving them an
opportunity to see places they might otherwise never see.
LUCY: A lot of the time I think people I'm really excited about
the opportunity to go to new places and be around all of
these beautiful sites that they might not have even known
existed.
I think that's sometimes quite nice when we go on hikes that we
hadn't even heard of before. It's really nice to suddenly
unlock a new place that you never realised was just an hour
from London or something like that.
I always get really excited before a hike because you never
quite know what's going to happen and who's going to be
there. The connections you're going to make and the things
you're going to see.
I remember on our second hike, actually we stopped at a
National Trust lighthouse and we stopped there for lunch and
there was obviously over 200 of us and we took up all this
grassy space and we were sitting, eating our picnics and
everyone was just having such a good time.
We were doing handstands in the grass and it was so beautiful
and the people working at the National Trust were like, oh,
what's going on? Who are you?
And we said, we're Dykes Who Hike and this older guy who was
working there ran inside and ran back out with loads of pride
flags and he was wearing a pride t-shirt over his shirt that he'd
like found and he brought it out for us all. And we all got a
photo in front of the lighthouse of all these big flags and
everyone was like so excited and it was just one of those things
that you would never expect and we would never have imagined
that that would have happened that day when you're getting the
train on the way up but it was one of those moments that was so
special.
YAS: I think that's always a really heartwarming thing.
Especially when it's people that are just like members of the
public or in this instance like someone who just happened to be
working at a place that we were passing by that day.
And when you interact with them and it's like not just a nice
reaction it's like here we'll put these flags out for you like
they're not for us they're for like everyone. It's forming
connections with people that you didn't expect to. I think those
are like really heartwarming moments for me.
LUCY: Yeah that's really special. We just get so many
nice comments of people saying that they just feel really
thankful for the space.
YAS: Because a lot of these places are just small towns and
they'll have one or two pubs in them. And we always phone up the
pub beforehand and book a space. And that's always so funny when
you're like, oh yeah, we're this LGBTQ plus walking group called
Dykes Who Hike, and can we book a pub garden for 150 people?
And then one pub we turned up to, they'd put all these pride
flags out for us. And like they called all the local lesbians
from the town to come out.
LUCY: We actually crashed a local wedding because it was
this tiny village and it had a pub and it had a social club.
And the social club, half of it was a pub that had a pool table
and the other half was like a wedding venue. So there was a
wedding going on in that side, but the local lesbians took us
there. We've got photos of the last of the hikers and the local
lesbians and all of these random bridesmaids.
It's so random. But it was fun.
YAS: It's all community building.
LUCY: And actually that kind of reminds me of a few comments
we've had from people before when they say they've never had
queer representation in this part of the world or whatever
and all of a sudden there's 150 of us right there where they've
like grown up.
If I was 15 and I saw 150 LGBTQ plus women trans non-binary
people walk past my house I think I would die.
Like it's crazy to actually think about it.
I think sometimes if someone's suggested a hike to us, that's
always really fun because they know it really well. And a lot
of the time we'll have someone who's like, oh, this is near
where I live. I can run the route for you. Which is nice
because we like to have a navigator on the hike because
we're not as good as reading maps.
YAS: I'm really bad at reading maps actually, yeah quite bad.
LUCY: It's not our talent.
YAS: No, it's not. But some people love it and are really
good at it and it's really nice when someone's really proud of
their town and they're like, oh yeah my friend works at the cafe
or the pub and we can do a stop there and that's always really
nice.
LUCY: We also use social media as well and there's a lot of
really great creators who make videos about places that you can
get to.
YAS: So, when we set up Dykes Who Hike, It just got so big so
fast that we got a lot of questions about like, oh, can I
bring my friend who's an ally or like my gay male bestie? Which
we had a lot of sympathy for, but there was just so much
demand from queer women, trans and non-binary people. We were,
yeah, let's like prioritise this group of people. Kind of anyone
who identifies with the label dyke is welcome.
Yeah, that was kind of why we capped it as well, because I
think on the second hike we got over 200 people and we couldn't
all fit..... Well, we did all fit but it was like sardines on
the train like over to Dover and then the train conductor
couldn't reach their telephone to do the announcement. So we
had to like pass it along like a line of us and they just found
it really funny how many of us there were on the train.
LUCY: And I think there's something nice about yeah
knowing that you're in a space where you can kind of just be
fully yourself without having to have the initial kind of
conversation.
YAS: Like you don't have to explain the details or things
that just come with being queer. Like you just don't have to
think about it when you're surrounded by those people and
you're not othered because there's just so many different
ways of being a queer person.
You see that every type when you're in a group of that size
so that's kind of why we we did it I guess it's just like to
create a space for just that group of people.
LUCY: Yeah, and I feel like there's something really nice
about when people say about how they've never really been in a
space with that many other people like them, especially
outside, like when you're not in a club or whatever.
And so I think that's really nice and kind of a space that's
quite treasured. I think people are often surprised by the
amount of people that do come on the hikes, but there is
something really powerful in feeling like a big group where
you're all on a similar vibe.
And yeah, you are able to go into spaces that you might
normally feel a bit weird in yourself, but suddenly it
doesn't feel that scary because you're all surrounded by so many
people who are so confident in themselves. It just like rubs
off on you, you know?
YAS: The thing I always think about is I have like a bit of a
fear of public transport.
And I had an incident on a bus a few years ago where basically
just these like two random guys went a bit on a homophobic rage
at like me and my girlfriend at the time. And I think since then
I've just been a lot more aware of being like oh try and fly
under the radar or something on public transport.
But then yeah when we get the train back from a hike and
there's like a hundred of us or whoever's left and like we're
all having some tinnies and eating our fish and chips on the
train...... not being rowdy but being like loud like people are
like chatting or singing or playing music or something.....
and then I'm not worried at all, like it's never even crossed my
mind. What are they going to do, there's like 50 of us.
LUCY: I think people who aren't in the community might not
always understand why the hiking group is so important to us and
to lots of different people and I think sometimes people might
not quite get how important it is but it's not just going out
with the dykes.
Like a lot of people always joke that their dad was like oh
you're going out on the dykes tonight, da da da da.
But actually it's a deeper feeling of... finding people
that you can just exist with.
SPK_3: I think one of the most important things about creating
community outside is when you're outside, you enjoy it even more
because you're getting to see so many beautiful things whilst
this beautiful thing between you and these people is happening.
YAS: I think someone's put it really nicely on the second walk
where they said that normally they're just used to going to
catch-ups with friends.
But when you spend the whole day together you go beyond all of
that and then you start like actually living life together. I
think was the way that she put it and I was like oh wow that's
very profound.
Oh yeah, we've done a big loop of the park now coming back to
the boating lake where this walk began we can we see some of the
street lamps shimmering in the in the water.
That was a Lime bike going through a puddle.
Which seems to be a real theme of this walk. And also quite
fun, we can see some basketball courts off to the side. And that
also feels full circle because Me and Lucy met at a basketball
club, so really coming back to the roots.
LUCY: I can't believe it's been so well planned to end like
that.
YAS: My hope for the future of Dikes Who Hike is just to have a
group set up in every town and city in the UK, if not the
world.
We've got a few set up across England already, like up in
Manchester and Leeds and Shropshire and Norwich. Yeah,
it's really great when people either come on the walk and then
they think, oh, this is what my town needs. I want to go and
bring it back there. Or they just see it on Instagram and,
yeah, think the same thing.
It's just like this web that can spread and, yeah, hopefully
people can find a few more friends out of it.
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Thanks for listening to this episode.