Back in Sydney for the Bridge Climb!
Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Thu 15 Jan 2015 23:15
After a day chilling out we met up for the climb. Although it is a 3.5 hour 'experience', the first hour is taken up getting ready. The first thing you have to do while signing your life away on the disclaimer form, is take a breath test - you have to be below the legal drink-drive limit to do the climb.
Once you have been cleared at that hurdle, the next thing is getting your kit of and on again. The company provides a really fetching grey and blue jumpsuit, under which we were advised to wear just our underwear on the basis of the temperature at the top of the bridge. Depending on the weather, and it seems they do the climb in just about any weather, they give you fleeces, rain coats etc etc, can't see the point in doing it in the rain, the whole experience is about the view which would be somewhat diminished!
Now all we had to do was get into the climbing harness, and get our radios, after that it was the so-called simulator, which was basically two ladders up, walk across and two ladders down, not quite sure what the point of that was!
Eventually we set off. The climb was easy, only a couple of steep ladders at the start and end, but the actual walk over the very top of the bridge was not much different to being on flat ground, there is only a very slight incline. The was lots of stopping and starting along the way as the guide took loads of pictures of the group and individuals, which were for sale at the end, this did take quite a while as there were 15 of us.
The view was amazing from the top and the experience was well worth the time and effort even if it was about an hour longer than it needed to be! Here is a copy of the official photo taken at the top. We have no photos ourselves as along with all the other rules, you are not allowed to take anything with you, no cameras, phones, jewellery, watches, even hair grips need to be removed!
After that we had one more day and night together in Sydney. We had decided to leave a day earlier than originally planned when Alex was deciding whether to stay on or not. We met Alex, who had spent the day out at the beach with Ivan, at Woolloomooloo quay for dinner. Aren't the names of theses places brilliant? I did check the spelling by the way, before you wonder if it is just an error!
Saturday, and it was time to go our separate ways, us on to Batemans Bay, further south along the coast and Alex, who by now had decided to leave, was going back to Italy.
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