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Published: January 10th 2006
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Hiya Folks,
Well we have now arrived in Queensland, well just a couple of hour ago actually and settled into our Hotel The Comfort Inn Queenslander, a perfect base with good clean accommodation and "heaven" 2 swimming pools and Jaccuzzi. And as they have their own internet room, thought I would relay a brief extract of my notes on the bridge walk in Sydney, so here goes.
12th December 2005
Woke up to a glorious cloudless sky, ideal for the bridge walk. It is a particularly poignant day for me as 10 years ago my Dad passed away so it seems fitting to do the Bridge walk as I am sure if he were here today and visiting Oz, he would have definately opted to do it, he was that kind of person, always up for a challange and adventure.
David and I got to the Bridge walk office and booked in for the 12 Noon walk. We had a bit of time to kill so again walked around the rocks and had a snack in a local cafe. What I have noticed in Sydney is that everyone in the shops and cafe's are so friendly and
helpful, it makes the holiday that much more enjoyable if you can have a joke with the local people and my "pommie" Essex accent seems to help too. We got back to the bridge climb centre and after formalities forms to fill and like, we were given overalls to put on. These overalls I had were obviously made for someone over 6ft as once donned, fell in folds around my trainers. The belt they gave us with the safety cleat wheel helped a little but I looked at the end rather like a rather dishevelled extra from Star Trek wearing someone elses uniform 6 sizes too big. We also had rubber ear piece sets that covered the ears and apparently are used by American Marines. These are used for the guide Tony to speak to us as it is really windy on the bridge. Once we had the training session on ladders, we set off first through an opening and onto the section below the road that leads to the granite clad pylon of the bridge.
Our guide Tony was a tall lean Australian with a cheeky good humoured nature and a mass of curly hair. He took us
through the first part of the walk before the climb and pointed out various features below. For example the gift from France of a "piss'uare" (a male / female loo)which I do not think is used anymore, but Tony commented that the Americans got "The statue of Liberty and the Australians got the piss'uare!!! what were the French trying to say to the Aussies back then?
Soon we were climbing the steep ladders up various stage landings through the lanes of traffic on the road deck and up to the top of the curved steel of the arch. Wow!! the view, fantastic, like a glistening white toy the Opera house was down to our right with tiny ants running around it's base, "my god its people!!! we are high up", but I looked at the structure of the bridge and felt reassured although it is designed to move it is safe and I marvelled at the ingenuity of the construction and how brave the guys were that built it, must have had nerves of steel.
Soon we approached the top and had our photo's taken me and David, then on top a group photo. Then we got to the top and Tony pointed out distant land marks, the cliff at the mouth of the inlet from the Pacific, Nicole Kidmans house!! hmm!!! "who is he trying to kid (the peach one next to the pink one on a peninsula in the distance, "oh well I'll let him have that one", the prime ministers home and the General Governors residence also near the bridge also on a peninsula, "very nice". Soon we were crossing the centre of the bridge and making our way down again. The walk back was interesting and different as we were descending on the opposite arch. Tony told us about the construction and how there were over a million rivets, 14 people lost on the bridge project, strangely none from the centre of the span, most were at lower levels and on the pylon and a few died in the workshops of burns or poison from the lead paint that was used to cover the bridge when first built.
All too soon it was over and we were getting our overalls off and collecting our certificates and the photo's. It was so well worth it, most exciting and enjoyable and as long as you are fit at any age I would recommend it to everyone. Some people have been in their eighties and a 100 year old lady has completed it, so come on people if you are in Oz, it is one of the highlights of the trip. There is a gallery of photos of celeb's who have compoleted it at the climb station, Matt Damon, Danni Minogue, Will Smith, Bette Midler, Prince Harry and loads more.
After the thrills of the bridge we decided to get a ferry at Darling harbour and go to the Aquarium. I can also thoroughly recommend this you get to see sharks, reef fish, seals and walk through tunnels under the water where we are told that the scale is 25% of the actual size of the sea creatures as the 25mm thick glass distorts the view. My particular favourites are the Giant Manta Ray so graceful and on the under side they look as if they are smiling. They like flattening themselves on top of the glass tunnels as do all the others because the water flowing over them tickles and feels nice, well so the staff there say.
After this we moved on to the Sky Tower went up the lifts to the observation gallery for a really fabulous view of Sydney, really worth doing. Also up there is a virtual reality ride around Oz, the outback and cities, oceans again really cool!! From here we wandered back to our Hotel after taking night shots from the park of the bridge and opera house. Then back to Kings Cross Crest Hotel, shower change, and a meal in a Restaurant near the sphere fountain which was fabulous. We had a down and out bother us for money and when he left us, his trousers dropped down and he exposed his rear end for all to see. Then once the floor show was through we headed back for the Hotel and sleep.
The Blue Mountains tomorrow, keep logging in.
Richie
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Angela
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Hi there.
Never read a blog before - yours is amazing. Your section is living it up at Manzoni's Christmas Party - not a patch on the amazing bridge walk. have a lovely hot Christmas. Love