Lisa and her daughter Ashleigh did it, and Lisa really wanted to make sure Alexandra, Eric and I did it as well. It costs a bit, I think Lisa said it was around $190 AUD for a daylight trip and add another $70 or so if you want to do twilight.
What am I talking about, well, the Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb. Some years ago a bloke was successful at getting permission to start leading visitors and locals up to the top of the bridge. This same bloke has a couple of other tourist-type adventures around the town as well. The whole climb involves mostly stairs and a couple of ladders. You don’t need to be a tri-athlete to do it, so its pretty much available to most folks to complete. I believe there are over 1000 steps.
You start by meeting at their 5 Cumberland Street address in the Rocks. There you sign away your rights, look at photos of famous folks that have done the climb, and sit in a coral and watch a couple of introductory videos. Then a guide will come grab you and take you into another room, go over the process, getting suited up and the like. They will also test you to make sure you aren’t drunk. We had a guy in our group, I’ll call him Cliff, that failed the first test, but passed a second one that used a different measuring device.
Why do I call him Cliff? It seems any time you are in a decent sized group of strangers, there is always one person that asks a lot of stupid questions or makes stupid comments. Like Cliff from the television show Cheers. This guy achieved both through-out our 3.5 hours together. So if you are ever in a group, point out the Cliff.
SIDEBAR: Once upon a time, Kevin Click, James Hart and I flew into Vegas and drove across Death Valley on our way to LA. It was on this trip that we successfully identified two human oddities: One being the previously mentioned Cliff and the other a “Chuck.” A “Chuck” is named after a bartender at a Death Valley resort that wanted to tell you more about their life and times than you really wanted to know. Funny, we always thought that you were suppose to tell your troubles to a bartender. Anyways, a “Chuck” is someone who throws up on you all their personal issues without you giving any indication that you are interested.
After the briefing, you go get suited up in a jumpsuit, if you don’t have on something close to tennis shoes, they will supply some loaners. When its time to get in the harness (thank god you aren’t clipped to anyone else), you meet your real climb guide. Ours was named Dee; a short, grounded girl with a black butchie hair cut that made her look like she might play for the other team. She had a good attitude and was well versed dealing with folks like us. After the harness was on, you walk over to a simulation where you move across a span of steel so that you know what it will be like when you get outside. Then you can a radio head set so that Dee can tell you about the bridge and Sydney during the climb.
During the climb, Dee liked to point out how many people died during the building of the bridge, what the economy was like back then, how they called the bridge the iron lung since it kept some many families fed during the depression. She also told us a couple of stories about male workers having the genitals damaged during the building. When I told Lisa about this, she said she never heard these stories on her climb. Playing for the other team, Dee, may have been.
Here is a group snap of us on the climb. They also take individual photos that they sell at the end. They don’t allow you to take your own camera up, or any metal for that matter. I’m on the far right:
I think the climb is worth doing. The views are outstanding. It exceeded my expectations! I suggest that you sign up for the very last daylight climb so that you get some of the sunset. They do the climb rain or shine. No climbing if lightening is in the area. You should buy your tickets in advance via their website.
What you look like from the Sydney Opera House. If you look real closely or zoom into this snap, you can see a couple of lines of ants climbing on the bridge:
Great post DMZ!