It was very easy to say “of course, I can climb Sydney Harbour bridge”. It is very easy from the comfort of my sofa on the other side of the world. And now? Well, with one hour to go until “climb time” I feel a little bit sick.
If like me you suffer from a fear of heights and you want to conquer that fear, as I now have, then look here
We arrived in Sydney last night, one day later than expected, flights had been cancelled due to severe weather. Our free day of relaxing and drafting my critique following judging, was consumed by an indoor day within the confines of Melbourne airport.
We arrived in Sydney last night (Monday) and saw the bridge for the first time, see the other post – Speechless in Sydney, for pictures.
Our hotel was in Central Quay and I had reserved a room with a balcony and bridge views. This was going to be a big tick off my bucket list, having breakfast on the balcony with a view of Sydney Harbour Bridge – TICK! It didn’t disappoint…
However, it was a bit chilly, so half way through breakfast we had to retire inside.
If you look closely at the picture of the bridge above, you can see two flags flying from the top, more about them later, but there is a little dot in between them (no, that isn’t me!) that is the red aircraft warning light, that is the light that we will be standing under later, when we climb the bridge…
Once we had warmed up and finished breakfast, we made our way over to the Bridge Climb. If you want to find out more about it then click here There is an excellent visitor centre and plenty of information about the bridge so even if you are not climbing, you can still learn about this magnificent structure.
We started the tour by watching a safety video, then got strapped into climbing harnesses and had head phones and radios fitted. The most fetching thing of all was the all in one jump suit we had no choice but to adorn. Now young slim people needn’t worry what they look like, nor panic about light grey trousers but ladies of a certain age, will understand my terror when I was handed, without being asked my size nor preference for colour, an all in one jump suit that was pale grey and bright blue! (I was glad I hadn’t had too much to drink that morning and neither did I sneeze for the whole event!)
Once I had recovered and been securely strapped in, all of the climbers (14 of us) had to have a practice climb to ensure we could both safely climb a ladder and follow instructions.
We were all secured onto a safety line and made our way out onto a pathway underneath the bridge. The exertion level required to complete the bridge climb has been described as equating to an 18 hole golf course, and I would tend to agree, just with the addition of four very steep flights of steps and squeezing through some steel girders.
The entire experience takes about 3 hours but within 30 minutes of the start (to find out more click on the link at the word experience at the beginning of this sentence), we were out walking in fresh air. We walked to a tower of the bridge, where we climbed 4 very steep flights of steeps/ladders, then we were out on the world famous arch. The views were quite simply breath taking. We were not allowed to take cameras with us, for fear of dropping them on motorists below, but our guide took photos of us at regular intervals. We haven’t downloaded the photos as yet but, when we do they will be blogged about for sure!
At the summit (click the word summit for more information) we were 134 meters above sea level, had wonderful views of our hotel at the Quay and of course the World Heritage site of the Opera House. It is absolutely iconic. It was never on my bucket list to climb the bridge, but I put it on there and have now ticked it off!
At the top we stood beneath the little red light and between the 2 flags, it was a warm dry day with the wind blowing, our guide made the trip one to remember, we were given time to look, time to be in the moment and time to take in where we were and what we had achieved.
I am pleased to say that I no longer have a fear of heights.
I am pleased to say that when I focused my energy, I could stand and look through the gridded floor that we stood upon and look down to the cars and water beneath.
I am pleased too say, my fear of heights departed me today, thank you Sydney Harbour Bridge, thank you in deed.
For more information about the two flags click here
Climbing Sydney Harbour Bridge was iconic. I hadn’t really thought about having a fear of heights. in those exact words. prior to climbing but what I had thought about, was how would I feel if I couldn’t climb the bridge? Would I regret it? Of course I would.
Some years ago a small group of us completed the zip wire at Zip World Now this I did find scary but by completing it, I gained so much. That experience taught me to challenge my fears and reinforced my life long motto of “never say no, only to hard drugs”
Some experiences are just that, experiences and then there are others. Other experiences that are life changing. Other experiences that we need to bottle and dip back into when the need arises in our future life.
This trip to Australia will need a bottle rack all of its own…
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