Women pull on boots for hiking trip

WOMEN are to lead their own forest camping trip as part of a new scheme to boost the number of people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds spending time in Scotland’s woodlands.

The eight-strong group will spend tonight at Doune Ponds nature reserve as part of a new scheme run by the Forestry Commission.

The group, which includes women from India, Iran and Russia, has been working since March with Backbone, a training organisation that provides opportunities to marginalised groups in the UK.

This weekend’s outing will be the group’s first unsupervised camping trip.

Tamara Mhura, 54, from Malawi and an Edinburgh resident since 1986, said: “At first I did not think that hiking and camping in the woods was for me at all but now I know that I can even take a group of women out – my confidence is getting much higher.”