At last the time had arrived for me to make my way to the Highlands of Scotland to scale the heights of Ben Nevis.

I made my way by train to Edinburgh, and then across to Glasgow. There I met with a group of people who would be my companions for the next few days, several of whom had done the climb before. I quickly stocked up on several Snickers and granola bars before boarding the bus to Fort William.

We had travelled barely forty-five minutes outside of Glasgow before being confronted with amazing mountain vistas which resembled the scenery in the Lord of the Rings movies. We made a couple of stops to take photos and one at the Green Welly', which is like a frontier outpost for hill-walkers to stock up on last minute supplies. The driver - who had obviously done the route many a time - had no concerns about driving the coach at 70 miles an hour around the winding road which was barely wide enough to accommodate two vehicles. On several occasions I winced as another coach appeared from around a bend and came within inches of removing the entire right hand row of seats.

Representatives from the adventure tour company which would be taking us up the mountain the next day provided insightful and detailed commentary as we drove on, which really enhanced the amazing geography and sense of history that surrounded us. "If you look to your right," the girl said, "you'll see the house that Jimmy Saville sometimes stays in."

Eventually we reached Fort William and our accommodation, the Ben Nevis Hotel. After checking in we attended a briefing on what we would face the next day. This included an equipment check, safety lecture and a bit of well-rehearsed humour from our guide. We were even taught how to walk properly - apparently, we had been doing it wrong throughout our lives until that point.

Follow Michael's last three blogs (link below).