Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb

What an exciting day! We arrived in Sydney last night, and this morning we headed down on the free shuttle bus for our bridge climb. The whole performance took some hours, - first with having to sign disclaimers, get breathalysed, dress in jumpsuits, get special attachments for sunglasses, put on headsets so that we could hear instructions, and finally attaching the harness which we would clip on to the rail on our climb. We then had a practice using the clips to climb up a few ladders. At last, a group of 10 in single file with a young woman leading us, started out along a narrow walkway, until we reached the granite pylons. There we had to negotiate ourselves through narrower areas, stepping over some obstacles before we reached the ladders. There were 4 ladders and on reaching the top of one we had to manoeuvre round onto the next one. This for me was the scary part - at one point when our heads appeared at the top of one ladder, we were so close to the road that the speed and noise of the traffic was surreal. We had only just reached road level. After that we were onto the open curve of the bridge which was much easier as the gradient was gentler and it did not feel so exposed. Our guide stopped at various places to explain the history and structure of the bridge, so we were not rushed and could enjoy the views across the harbour to the opera house and the CBD. Sydney must be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Both the bridge and the stunning opera house certainly do justice to the harbour itself. (We were allowed cameras so these blips are taken later from one of the pylons, which we climbed later).

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