Another night of high winds and driving rain. It was quite a problem packing the tent away at first light but at least the rain had eased a bit. I still hadn’t made my mind up which way to descent to the Langdale valley bottom but decided on the north route and Oak Howe Needle. There wasn’t an obvious path and I just had to battle my way though knee deep heather which was difficult in the wet and slippy conditions. The cloud was low and I could only just see across the valley. The drop offs to the right were far too steep to attempt and the gentle ridge I’d seen on the map turned out not to be much use as it was an impenetrable mass of high heather and trees. I came to a point above a long chute of scree which was opposite Oak Howe Needle. It was steep but looked like a steady and careful approach would be OK. The looser parts of the scree weren’t too bad as I just seemed to sink into it and descend slowly as the scree did as well. When I got to the grass I had to be extra careful because it was very wet.

Oak Howe Needle.

Oak Howe.

I reached a wall and gate hole with a wooden gate and large rocks holding it shut. I was able to remove some rocks to get through but unable to replace all the rocks as they were now on the other side. I was soon on the main path on the south side of Great Langdale Beck and followed it past Oak Howe buildings. I walked past the camping area but there was only one bedraggled looking tent on it. I arrived in Chapel Stile village with well over an hour to wait for my bus. I called in the shop to buy a bit of food but the woman behind the counter was not very friendly so I left to while away the time sat in a shelter opposite. I saw the bus go up the valley to the Dungeon Ghyll stop but it was about 40mins before it returned to pick my up. In Ambleside the bus almost filled up with people going to Windermere for the train. At the railway station there was another long wait as the first train wasn’t due till 12:59. The train arrived over 10mins late and I wondered how the first train, with nothing else on the line, could be late. The excuse was over-running maintenance works. Many people were worried that they’d miss their London connection at Oxenholme and as we arrived so did the London train. We all rushed under the subway to just make it. I got off at Preston to catch the Manchester train for Chorley, then home.