What a great day in Sydney! The weather has been fantastic, and Patch and Michaela have been awesome. This morning Patch offered to go with me down to the harbor, showing me where to get the bus, and where to get the train. We got off the train at Town Hall Station, then walked to the harbor. On the way, we walked through the Queen Victoria Building. This is now a building of upscale shops on multiple levels. It’s also where Patch and Michaela were married. It’s a very cool building.
Once we left the QVB, we zigzagged until we could cross into Circle Quay. There is a lot of construction going on (putting in a light rail...hmmmm...sounds like Seattle). I’m thankful we were walking. I can’t imagine trying to drive, or really even ride through the city.
For today, I wanted to do the Bridgeclimb. It’s a 3 hour adventure of climbing to the top of the Harbor Bridge. Patch and I found where to book it, and I was able to book for 1:15. That was in 2 hours time.
I said goodbye to Patch, and walked over to the Opera House. Well...what can I say...it’s pretty cool! Such an icon of Sydney. Right now, La Bohème is being performed. If I have time, I may tour the Opera House tomorrow. Today I walked around and took photos. Flat Will got to see the Opera House too.
I wanted to eat some lunch before heading to the Bridgeclimb. There were a bazillion options, but I opted to check off a New South Wales Subway. I got my food, and went over to a park bench. This interesting beggar kept me company.
Once I finished my lunch, I meandered over to where the Bridgeclimb would start. I got there quite early, bought a few souvenirs, then checked in for the climb. I was early enough to go on an earlier tour. That was great, because then I didn’t have to wait around, and I would finish earlier.
The tour is about 3 hours. The first hour is spent signing a health waiver, gearing up, and practicing climbing the ladder. To gear up, you first get a jumpsuit. Because it was a warm day, they said to strip down to just underwear under the jumpsuit. You also have to remove any jewelry (except rings and small ear rings), and you can’t take anything with you except sunglasses and prescription glasses, not even a hat. But, no worries, they give you a hat, and you get to keep it! All your belongings go into a locker, and the key goes around your neck.
Next they give you croakies for your glasses. The end of the croaky attaches to the back of the jumpsuit. I had two because I had my regular glasses and my sunglasses. Once everyone is in their jumpsuits and has there glasses secured, you go through a metal detector. They mean it when they say you can’t take anything with you!
Next up is the harness. It’s a belt that goes around your waist, and has a stretchy line with a hook thingy that will attach to the static cable line on the bridge. Harnesses secured, we move on to the hat and hankie station. The hat has a little line that attaches to the back of the jumpsuit, and the hankie attaches to the sleeve of the jumpsuit, then you just stuff it up the sleeve. The hankie can be used to wipe a runny nose, or as the case with most people today, wetted down to wipe sweat and keep a little cooler. If it was cold, they would also provide gloves and fleece jackets (and beanies instead of ball caps).
We moved from hats and hankies to the radio station. There we got a headset and a radio that went into a pocket on the back of the harness. Bronte, our fearless leader, tested our headsets to make sure everyone could hear her. We would wear the headsets so she could talk to us as we climbed the bridge.
Finally we had a short training on how to connect the hook thingy to the cable, and practiced climbing the ladders up and down (on the climb there were four ladders up, and four ladders down). All that being finished, we had an opportunity for sunscreen, and drinks of water, then we were off!
I was first behind Bronte (I think because I was the only single person). We walked through a tunnel, then went out to the lower arch, walking along a catwalk. Bronte provided an excellent commentary on the history of the bridge. One fact that was pretty interesting is that there wasn’t really many cars when the bridge was built, but they had the foresight to put in something like 8 lanes!that was definitely some future-proofing!
We walked quite a ways, then climbed the four ladders. We were allowed to take our time, and stop to look at the scenery. That brought us up and out into the sunshine for the walk on top of the bridge to the top of the arch some 134m above the water. Bronte took photos (10 in total) along the way.
I found the climbing to be not difficult (Wineglass Bay was much more strenuous). However, some of the others were feeling the effort. Skip, from Florida, was sweating buckets. Bronte had an extra bottle of water that she was giving him drinks. There were also a couple of misters that you could spray your face with along the way. Since Skip was directly behind me in the line, I periodically asked him how he was doing. He was a retired firefighter. He also said smoking for 30 years wasn’t helping him.
At the top, the view was absolutely spectacular! It was so clear that we could see as far away as the Blue Mountains, the ocean, and all of Sydney. The Opera House looked quite small (yet it is half the height of the bridge). The many boats in the harbor looked like toys. There was just a very small amount of wind that provided a little cooling fan. Bronte took a group photo, which we were each given a print of when we returned. To think that when the bridge was being built (over 8 years), the men had no harnesses or safety ropes. Over the course of the 8 years, only 5 men died from falling from the bridge. There was one miraculous story about a man who fell from 50 meters into the water, and survived with just hairline fractures in his legs, and a couple of broken ribs. The force of the impact with the water (he landed feet first) caused his leather boots to split and slide up his legs causing some leather burns on his legs. In a couple of weeks, he was back on the bridge.
We came down the other side of the bridge, down a different set of four ladders, and back to the beginning. We took all the gear off, then changed out of our jumpsuits back into our clothes. Once that was done, we got our climbing certificates, and free group photo. The other 10 photos were available for purchase. Of course, I purchased the USB with all the photos. I can’t download the photos until I get home, but here’s a photo of the group photo.
After I left the Bridgeclimb place, I was hungry, so I stopped at a patisserie and had this delightfully delicious dessert (and a welcome bottle of water).
I wondered over to the Modern Art Museum which was free. This was my favorite piece—tiny little slippers.
After a bit more walking around, I decided to get some dinner on the wharf before heading back to Patch and Michaela’s place. They are out tonight, so there was no hurry to get back. I ate a a restaurant with this view of the bridge. I had spinach and ricotta gnocchi. It was quite good. While I was waiting for my food, I was looking over some guides, deciding what to do for the next two days of my Sydney stay. I really want to go to the Blue Mountains. I decided to see about booking a tour, as I would be able to be more efficient in seeing and experiencing what there is to do, rather than just taking the train out there myself. I went back to where I had booked the Bridgeclimb. The tour I wanted was booked for tomorrow, so I will go on Wednesday. It is an all-day tour (as in like nearly 12 hours). It should be really amazing.
Tomorrow I plan to check out some of the harbor ferries. The ferry system is much like the bus and the train. I can use my Opal card to take ferries to the various places. The weather is suppose to continue to be great.
No comments:
Post a Comment