At last, a dry night. I had to get going early as this is my last day. Fortunately the cloud had almost cleared and I had nice views first thing. It was good to see the sunrise as I was packing the tent away. I had quite a way to go to catch the bus so made sure I was away early.

Just before sunrise.

The sun about to emerge.

I left the camp at 6:30am and set off towards Sergeant Man. If the weather had cleared yesterday I would already have done this part of the walk and missed all the high level views of the clouds below. I turned left and began the descent towards Codale Tarn. I’d walked it several times before and knew I’d have to be careful in the wet conditions. The rocks were wet and slippery and in some places quite steep. I was very careful all the way down to flatter ground and the scary thing is that just a few miles away on Sharp Edge, Blancathra a tragedy was about to unfold due to exactly the same conditions I was concerned about.

Looking across the clouds below.

A family from Peterborough were out walking and during the early afternoon slipped and fell off the ridge. The woman was killed and her husband and daughter were seriously injured. The views were very impressive and low cloud hung in the valley bottoms while I could see for miles above. At last I reached the comparative safety of level ground by Easedale Tarn but it was still very wet and boggy. Though it didn’t make much difference to my feet as they’d been wet since I started. Below the tarn the path is stoned and stepped so not too difficult. The last stretch before reaching the Steel Bridge footbridge and road is flat and pleasant. The rest of the way along the road was very quiet and I reached Grasmere about 9am. I was in plenty of time for the bus and called in the book shop to buy a copy of the book about Millican Dalton. There were plenty of people about and the bus was almost full as we left Grasmere. I had to wait for the 12:20 train, which was quite full as well. Because the line between Preston and Chorley is still closed for engineering works I caught the bus in Preston.

Joining the crowds at Windermere Railway Station.