'YOU'LL be leaving civilian life behind'.

I hadn't paid much attention to this particular warning from a Lieutenant Colonel during a briefing about my trip to Afghanistan.

But from the moment I arrived at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire I suddenly realised it was absolutely true.

I was entering a different world, and I hadn't even left the UK.

I am no GI Jane, yet up to this point the prospect of heading to Afghanistan had just been exciting.

But it all became so real sitting in a waiting room alongside hundreds of soldiers awaiting the same flight.

I was definitely a fish out of water, surrounded by military precision, where everyone knows their place, dresses identically and speaks in acronyms.

There I was, sat clutching helmet and body armour, still excited but also nervous, wondering just what the next week would have in store.

Our journey was meant to be around half a day. It took 45 hours.

The Tristar aircraft should have gone direct to Kandahar, before an hour transfer on a Hercules plane to Camp Bastion in Helmand province, where the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment is based.

A two-hour stop in Cyprus took five hours thanks to an engine fault.

The delays meant we had to get special dispensation to land in daylight, something usually avoided.

The reason? Our plane was a 'huge grey target' for the Taliban according to an air steward wearing body armour and a bullet proof vest!

After landing at Kandahar our concerns were put into perspective by the sobering sight of hospital beds and oxygen tanks ready to treat injured soldiers.

Our marathon trip was completed after further delays, and a detour via Kabul to drop off some troops.

Camp Bastion is an amazing sight — a vast city of tents, like a five-star version of Glastonbury in temperatures of 50°C (122°F). Thankfully my home for the next week - a large tent with a few rooms - boasts air-conditioning.

Around 15,000 people are based at the camp, which was built in the middle of the desert four years ago.

Your eyes struggle to take in a vast terrain of sand and countless tents.

One of the most surprising sights was a Pizza Hut built to give some creature comforts to the troops.

It is going to be an interesting week!