Day 18 - Ben Lomond

It's possible that I've never climbed a mountain before and quite literally seen no view, all day.

I was joined up Ben Lomond by my brother Steve, and Liam and Neil, who are helping me make a film about the Round. The weather today was really surreal - mist all the way from the bottom to the top and back down again. We did an up and down of the main path from Rowardennan: quite a simple call compared to recent adventures! After the claustrophobic battles at Orchy, it was so refreshing to climb a mountain and feel unburdened.

Ben Lomond really was just a lot of fun. We shot loads of footage and met some great folks who were up there doing work on the path. We didn't get a single view, all day, and it gave the feeling of having not really climbed a mountain at all: more like we'd walked up a big path to a trig point and back again.

One of the nice things about Ben Lomond are the people you see. I love it as a mountain, but it also doubles as a tourist attraction. It's perhaps not surprising to have heard many accents and languages on the ascent - quite a culture shock, since I'd got used to the immense isolation of so many Munros, even ones that do see traffic from Central Belt Munro-baggers.

Steve on the summit of Ben Lomond. Not a view to be had!

Ben Lomond is spoiled in this way - there's so much attention focused in on that one mountain. I felt detached from the Munro Round: the conditions I was walking under had shifted so markedly from recent days. I was even climbing in trainers and jeans, (refreshing) which just completed the detachment.

But all in all, I had a very fulfilling day in good company.

My total is up to 46 Munros now. After 6 days on the trot, I'll be taking another rest day on the 20th - and then it's a 9-day push to complete the Southern Highlands. I feel like I've been tested already, but really this may all be the warm-up. Fortunately, the weather is looking good for the coming days and I'll be spared the drenchings which so charachterised the first days of my walk.

I'll be picking off the isolated summits like Chonzie, Tarmachan and Beinn Bhuidhe, then weaving a course back from Glen Coe down to Glasgow from the A82. There are several big groups there: Blackmount, Lui, Arrochar. I'll have one night back to see Rush live (this amount of coming home is getting embarrassing!) and then I'm away to Blair Atholl where the big stuff really begins.