Getting to Glen Nevis

After realising that the only way I could make it to Scotland on time would be to catch a late Saturday flight, I came to terms with the fact that I would have to make my way up there all on my jones, missing out on the Saturday's events and generally be considered the outsider for arriving late.

Luckily some mates had kindly agreed to sacrifice their chance at an early arrival and keep me company on the way up there. Even better was how one of these friends lived a good ten minutes away from Heathrow; I got my brother to drop me off there after the Chelsea thing in good time for the flight that evening at 20:25. It's funny how things work out, eh?

We got fed, used the bathrooms and then headed off to the airport. Our flight was delayed a bit but we made up for it in the air. We were making some pretty good time and were pretty much on for our midnight arrival at the youth hostel (Glen Nevis is around a two hour drive from Glasgow), when all of a sudden disaster struck. A piece of our luggage hadn't made it to baggage reclaim.

Despite being prepared for us (they didn't seem very surprised at the loss of luggage) British Airways were not very helpful. It was late in the day and we were on their last flight; the bag wasn't going to make it today. It would have been a miracle to see it at all before the climb, at which point there was probably no need to have it at all. Quite understandably, my friend was pretty upset at the prospect of not being able to climb Ben Nevis without her gear.

We couldn't really do anything about it though, so we checked out our rental car and made our way to Glen Nevis, a good hour or so behind schedule. The drive was uneventful and we made it to the hostel by around 00:45; I was in bed by 2am. Apart from Fajr, we were supposed to be up by around 7:30 for breakfast so I wasn't going to get much sleep tonight. Still, that was all part of the fun. Or at least that's what I was hoping.