Friday 3rd March 2015
After a day of not much in particular, I think I'd been psyching myself up for this evening's Bridgeclimb. I already felt lucky to be on the Bridgeclimb with friends as I'd managed to bag the final place after a couple of times trying. However, when I met Steph and her sister, Kat, at Circular Quay I fely a little disappointed that it was raining. We were pretty drenched on the short walk from here to the 'Climb Base' but the space centre like warehouse soon took our minds of the miserable weather outside.
Inside the base, we waited for our call time and were summoned through our gate where we filled in a couple of forms declaring medical conditions and so on. Then it was time to get prepared! We were led into the next area where we had to don very attractive jumpsuits along with waterproof trousers! We could take NOTHING onto the bridge so there were several reminders to check that our pockets were empty. Next was our safety belt so there was the whole group hanging off a semi-circular bar as we ensured they were tight. Then, in the following area, we accessorised our attractive onesies with a cap, head torch, handkerchief and rain jacket, all of which were clipped onto our suit to ensure nothing dropped from the bridge during the climb. Even my glasses were attached via a fetching clip. The last piece of equipment, gathered from the final area, was the radio packs so that we could hear our guide throughout our journey.
Even after all of this preparation we still weren't quite ready to start our adventure! There was a practice structure with ladders to the left and right with a platform joining them so we could practice hooking ourselves on climbing across. This allows anyone likely to panic with the height to back out now rather than on the bridge!
After an hour of preparation (this time had flown by!) we walked single file across the suspended gangway over base entrance, hooked ourselves onto the real wire and through a tunnel to the climb start. The beginning of the walk included the catwalk underneath the main bridge and a squeeze through the structure to the first ladders. This part was peculiar in that we were climbing between the lanes of traffic! It wasn't overly obvious though because we were surrounded by cage and metal!
Finally we were on the bridge 'proper' and it was AMAZING! Although I was initially disappointed that it was raining, the low clouds and rain made the city look majestic with the tall buildings peeking up into the clouds. The climb to the summit was really laid back with several stops to admire the view and climb makes it sound more hard work and daunting than it really is. The pathway was nothing more than shallow steps, particularly nearer the top where it was tricky because of the space between the steps (with short legs like mine!) rather than their height. All the way up, the guide was full of interesting facts and stories about the structure and how it was built but the main piece of information that I remember is that the Australian flag atop the bridge is the same size as a double decker bus!
From midway up the photographs began and each sensible photo was amusingly coupled with a posed shot. We'd chosen to book the twilight climb which meant that our upward climb was in the light (although the weather made it a little dull) and the descent was in the dark which meant we could also see the stunning city lights at night. We were also lucky enough on our ascent to see a cruise ship leaving Circular Quay - quite a sight from this perspective!
The descent was much quicker than the climb and we seemed to be back at the base in no time. We were adrenalin fuelled but pretty exhausted simultaneously but Kat and I were on enough of a high to walk through the city like this. We're such dudes!
This was certainly one of the highlights of my time here is Australia.
Don't tell me the sky is the limit when there's footprints on the moon.
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