No Fracking Way - Day 3 - Onwards to Lancashire

Ilkley

We reconvened on Day 3 ready for the walk across country. To recap, when we were planning the walk, the route we had intended to take (as per googlemaps) took us on a dual carraigeway with no footpath. Our only alternative route took us south across country for a few miles then catching country roads to Ilkley then Silsden and over the Lancashire border to Colne.

My (and probably everyone elses) confidence in my navigation skills following the end of Day 2 had taken a dip after I had taken us through the boggy woods of doom. Then came Ed Carne to join us at the starting point that day. Ed told us how he was always walking round here and knew the paths really well. Ed talked to Nigel Corser (ex Army) and they nodded in agreement a lot while looking and pointing at the map. Ed knew what he was doing. Ed wore a bushmans hat! I had been usurped as the Fellowship of the Frack's navigator and felt pretty good about it! Colin Noble on the other hand did not feel good. He had applied 'Compeed' to his blisters the previous day and then removed them in the evening. Compeed acts like a second skin and isn't supposed to be removed like a plaster. Consequently Colin's feet had gushed blood rather spectacularly. He decided to soldier on and recompeed at the earliest opportunity.

We set off and soon our footpath entered a muddy farmyard as I passed the farmer I asked him "Is this the way to Blackpool?" and smiled. Then we were crossing boggy fields, went over a river and started working our way up the hill and foumd our way onto another farm driveway which became a country lane and at the top of the lane we met up with a group of about half a dozen Greens from Ilkley and surrounds. They were going to be with us all the way to Lancashire.  We were back on country roads again and had saved ourselves a huge detour.

It was now a tale of hills. Down we went into Ilkley around lunchtime and we went into Boots to buy up all their Compeed, pain killers, cushioned insoles, that sort of thing.  As we got to the main street we were greeted by a big crowd of new walkers plus a table with tea, coffee and cake. My feet were tired. I didn't know before this walk that feet could get tired but they undoubtedly were and we had another half of the day to go. So after posing with a huge banner our much enlarged group set off towards Silsden and back

Clive Lord - No Way Fracking!

up country roads up one of those never ending hills. Eventually we reached the top and a few of us took a break to allow others to catch up. I took off my walking shoes and socks and enjoyed the cool air on them. Then we were off again down the hill into Silsden. Hospitality in spectacular cake form was on offer to us travellers at the home of Caroline Whitaker. We also had an offer of tea and cake at the HQ of the Ecology Building Society that was also based in Sildsen so a few of us whizzed round there to say hello. In total we probably had about an hour and a half in Silsden. It was a good break and good cake eating but eating into our walking time and daylight hours. We set off again. No rest now till Lancashire. We had been joined at this point by Green Party legend Clive Lord he had joined shortly after the Party first formed in 1973 and can talk to you in the minutest of detail about all aspect's of the Green Party's Citizens Income scheme. He is in his 80s and had decided he was going to walk with us for the next 3 days. Don't get me wrong Clive is in good shape but the pace we were putting on was a bit of a challenge even for this sprightly Octagearian. We kept a watchful eye on him and he kept with us for many a mile but was retreived before the more punishing stretches to come. As I was walking behind Clive I noticed something different about his fluorescent tabard. All ours said 'No Fracking Way' but his said 'No Way Fracking'.

Heading out of Silsden along a canal was a novelty and a nice break from the traffic, not that we had seen that much on the roads we had taken for most of the day. Then we were heading up another long deserted road. I remember this from the recce I had done with Ann Forsaith in January and of course it seemed much shorter in the car but I knew that near the top of the hill was a sign saying 'Welcome to Pendle'  and therefore Lancashire and shortly beyond that a nice looking Pub. When one of the people who joined us that day pointed out a footpath we might take that might be a little shorter and take us all the way into Colne I could see us losing the picture of us entering Lancashire. I decidedfor good or ill we would plough on. It was a very long way and the group must have spread out over a mile. By the time we all reached the 'Welcome to Pendle' sign people in the Core Group , now at the end of Day 3 were exhausted and some us were very clearly in considerable discomfort.

Lancashire border - no checkpoint!

After a short break in the pub our hosts for the evening whisked us off. Me Nigel, Colin and Brian were taken off by Andy Brown to his home in Cononley near Skipton. To say we felt cared for was an understatement. Andy allocated us rooms, showed us where the bathooms were. I pretty much collapsed in a heap in one bedroom. Across the hall I could hear Colin, "Ah! Ah! Ah!" If I didn't know better I would have thought he was having a very pleasurable experience in there. What he was doing was slowly taking his socks off and inspecting his poor feet. We all gradually made our way down to Andy's dining kitchen where he and his wife had prepared a lovely meal for us and out came the bottles of beer. After the day we had had this was really welcome and lifted my spirits immensely. The day wasn't over and we were taken into Skipton for a

Janet Russell

Folk Evening held to mark our walk above a pub in the Town Centre. This again involved the torturous activity of walking up some stairs. I sat down and vowed not to get up for a good while. It was a good crowd of about 50 or so folks and there were a number of good turns that went on including Andy on his guitar. For me I'll always remember Janet Russell and her beautiful scottish voice singing. There was one line where she said something about a long hard road and I felt myself beginning to well up a bit but held it together. Being an unreconstructed Yorkshireman I never felt blubbing was a particulalrly good look. It had been a hard day.

Time to take stock. It had been tough and the Core Group were clearly not all in the best of shape. My chafing required a wee bit of attention. Colin's feet were shot and he clearly wouldn't be walking tomorrow and was assigned to help Ann in the support vehicle. Otherwise we were all up for it. Getting into Lancashire, going past half way and the warmth and care we'd had at the end of the day were all good reasons to carry on. Back to Andy Brown's, topping up the Compeed, the careful application of soothing creams, on with the compression tights and sleep. Onward to deepest Lancashire tomorrow.