Sydney, Australia Bridge Climb

Tuesday, August 4, 2015 – Wednesday, August 12, 2015

So, I am on a tourist visa.  That means I have to leave the Philippines every six months; my six months was up, so we decided we needed some winter weather.  The first leg of our journey took us to Sydney, Australia.  It was a 10:15 P.M. flight on Philippine Airlines which would take eight hours.  The good thing is we were able to upgrade to business class using our points!

We arrived in Sydney and used uber to get to our hotel, Sheraton on the Park.  We had a corner room overlooking Hyde Park, really nice.  We took a two hour nap and then trekked over to the Sydney Bridge for the climb.  The bridge itself is beautiful and the harbor all around is really breathtaking. 

The set up for the climb is impeccable.  We checked in and waited for our group to be called.  It gave us time to look around the gift shop and grab a quick bite to eat as the climb would take three and a half hours.  Our numbers were called, and we headed into a room where we were given the low down.  We got our jumpers and then met our guide for the climb. 

Our guide gave us an explanation of what we would be doing and then gave us our “clip ons.”  We had hats, headphones, fleece jackets, hankies all of which was clipped to our jumpers.  We did a practice climb up a steep ladder – one just like the one we would be climbing on the bridge.  I don’t think anyone was apprehensive as we were so well prepared and not rushed in the least.

It was finally time to approach the bridge.  We were attached to the bridge the entire time and had to slide our attachment along this cable as we went along.  Actually, it slid on its own most of the time which was great.  We could enjoy the incredible view and listen to the interesting information and entertaining tales from our guide.

Along the way our guide took pictures of us as we were not allowed to take anything with us.  When we got to the peak of the bridge, we had a group photo taken.

The climb was enjoyable.  The stairs were wide and not steep.  It was cool to be above the cars and the train; we got quite the rattle when the train passed by.  On the way down, the wind had picked up, and it really felt like we could have blown right off.  Back at base it was nice to get a respite from the wind!  When it was over, it was almost surreal looking up at the bridge realizing we had just come from up there. 

This was a definite “glad we did it” adventure!