I left the house at 6am to catch the 125 Preston bus. It was on time and I subsequently arrived in a dark and wet Preston. It was interesting to see so many people on such an early bus. I set off to walk across town as the rain came down. Preston railway station was very busy as the morning commuters went about their journeys. My train was the 7:20 to Glasgow and I had some time to kill so after buying a newspaper I settled down to read it in the waiting room. The train arrived a little early and left exactly on time. I got off at Oxenholme and had more time to kill before the 8:41 bus to Sedbergh was due. I spent it in the waiting room and before setting off put my waterproof trousers on for the short walk and wait for the bus. I was at the bus stop in plenty of time and sat on the wall in the rain to wait. At 8:41 I saw a bus approaching and got up ready to catch it. It turned up a side road before arriving. I wondered if the route had changed for road works or something so returned to the railway station ticket office to ask. They knew nothing so I returned to the bus stop. I walked to the road where the bus had turned and waited at the bus stop there. The correct bus arrived 15mins late with no explanation why he was late.

A dark wet Preston.

First pitch on The Howgills

The fare to Sedbergh was £1:80. There was just me and one other passenger on the bus and we both got off in Sedbergh. The bus then continued his route Kirkby Stephen, presumably empty for the rest of the way. I despair at the way buses on minor routes are totally under used. It’s such a shame as they must run on a heavy subsidy and may eventually disappear. It wasn't much after 9am when I arrived and I set off towards Lockbank Farm, the gateway to the Howgill fells. The weather was quite bad and when I reached the farm I was getting hot under the waterproofs. I sheltered in a barn for a few moments to take my jersey off before continuing up the fell. As I got higher the weather got worse. The rain continued and the wind got up. The forecast was rain all day and I'd planned to camp near a spring I knew. I thought the most sensible thing was to camp at the first flat spot with water nearby before getting too high. I found a suitable spot just before 10am. It was very early stop but proved to be right as the rain continued most of the day and the wind became very strong. The cloud level also dropped and there was nothing but thick mist outside.