The Harbour Bridge Climb

---

The Harbour Bridge climb came highly recommended and is something new from when I came here previously (see Decision Time: Banking or Drugs and Prostitution), so I definitely wanted to give it a go. There's a minimum age of ten years, so, sadly, our son wasn’t old enough to do it, which he was absolutely gutted about. We will, apparently, need to go back to Australia in a few years time so that he can do the climb.

Booking it on the phone involved speaking to the most obnoxious woman. She didn't have a civilised answer to any of my questions.

"Are you allowed to take a camera with you?"

"What do you think, haven't you read the information?"

"No, I've just arrived and that's why I'm asking the question."

If I wasn't so determined to do the climb, I'd have told her what she could do with it!

To say that they took safety seriously on this climb would be an understatement. We all had to take breath-tests; we had to remove everything from our pockets and were not able to take a thing with us; we were permanently cabled to the bridge itself; and we all had radios linking us back to our guide. The climb was worth all the effort, however, so I was relieved that I hadn't told the woman on the phone what I thought of her.

To go some way to keep our son happy we climbed the pylon of the bridge. It was nothing in the league of the main bridge climb, however there were still some excellent views. Our son and daughter were surprisingly interested in the facts-and-figures about the bridge in the pylon museum.

After that it was down to The Rocks, where there was a large market, and then we went on another city tour bus. The disappointment was that the bus was not the open-top variety that we had been on in Perth (see Buses, Trains and Fish and Chips in The Rain). We were later annoyed to discover that there was an open-top bus, but it was just very badly publicised.

There was a shop opposite the apartments that was open twenty four hours and provided Internet access. I was a good opportunity to send some emails and also to book a Sainsbury’s food delivery for just after we got home. It's all very different from when I was back-packing 16 years ago.

---

Photos

Bridge Pylon View
View of Sydney from the pylon of the Harbour Bridge

The Rocks
The Harbour Bridge viewed from The Rocks

Sydney Opera House
A close-up of the Opera House

Sydney City at Dusk
The Central Business District viewed at dusk

Comments

[richardtede]

richardtede
When your up there your very exposed to the elements, even on a sunny day it can be quiet windy and when your up there for such a long time it can get quite cold. I have been on the walk and its amazing, you dont really mind the stupid suit :)