Bridge Climb...

Weather forecast... Thunderstorms.  All day.  Starting at 4am and going all the way through to 6pm.  The Bridge Climb was booked and the disclaimer states that they climb in every weather condition unless there is lightening.

So, I’m not really too sure where the Aussie’s get their weather predictions from; I can only assume that they predict the worst so that when it doesn’t happen everyone is surprised and happy that these storms must have narrowly missed them.  The day was absolutely glorious!!  At 9am I was walking through the Botanical Gardens towards the harbour to the base of the bridge and the sun could not have been any hotter for that time of the day.

I’d decided to book myself on the ‘discovery climb’ rather that the general Bridge Climb as instead of walking up and down the large arch of the bridge, you are guided up through the middle of it and then climb back down via the arch.  Also there was a lot of history and information given during this climb as you get to walk along and amid the large steel girders supporting the massive arch.

The climb started at 10am and the first point of call was to complete the disclaimer stating that I did not have any heart conditions etc... And that the company take no responsibility etc... blah blah blah...  Then it was time to get suited-up in the lovely grey and blue jumpsuit.  The rules of the bridge are extremely strict and you are not allowed to take anything at all onto the bridge.  There is to be nothing within your pockets, no cameras, money, wallets, no water bottles, food, and the list goes on.  The only things you can take are glasses/sunglasses that have to be attached to your jumpsuit.  The safety belt was then fitted with a radio to be able to hear the guide and most importantly the cable to attach you to the bridge!!  This is completely secured at all times and is what would (hopefully) stop you falling off of the bridge.

Half an hour later and all safety explained it was time to get onto the bridge.  The main point to the group was that if you are not too good with heights, then when walking over the mesh catwalks (which are approx. 100m above the water); don’t look down.  Classic piece of advice!!  Onto the bridge we went and straight off you can see how big this thing actually is, as it took nearly 10 minutes to walk along the first part of the bridge until we reached the first large Granite Pylon.  The pylons are quite magnificent; they stand 89 metres high and actually serve no purpose at all.  They are only for decoration and hold no support at all to the bridge.

Walking up through the middle of bridge gave a got perception of how huge the pieces of steel are which were used and the work that took place to hold the bridge together.  There are over 6million rivets used to hold all of the steel pieces together.

After an hour of climbing, ducking and diving between the steel girders and hitting my head at least 5 times we were approaching the top of the bridge.  The last part and possibly the worst was to walk along a very long and very narrow mesh catwalk approx. 150metres above the water.  The walkway was only about 2 feet wide and no matter how many times it was said, you had to look down!!  Getting to the top was absolutely amazing.  The views across the harbour and the city were incredible and the most annoying point was that you did not have a camera to capture it all properly.  After about 20 minutes at the top of the bridge it was time to decent along the main arch back to the pylon.

It was definitely an experience worth doing again and was fascinating to find out the amount of work that was put into building the structure.  In total it took 11 years to complete and this was at a time when there was no safety equipment used, no harnesses and most importantly no compensation for injury.  In total 16 people died during the construction of the bridge (the construction company predicted approx. 250); 14 from falling from the bridge and 2 sadly being cooked alive whilst working inside of the large steel beams during the hot summer months.  Even the guide said that with his experience of being on the bridge, he would never be able to detach the safety cable and walk across the steel beams...

This was also a good chance to get used to heights as I plan to go a lot higher on the next adventure!!

x

Sydney...

The only word I can use to describe Sydney is Awesome!! Oh wait, have another two as well; bloody expensive!!  But still Awesome.

Although the journey and arrivals didn’t quite go as planned.  Having drink myself stupid with Jagerbombs the night before I woke up having slept through 2 alarms and was then in a mad panic to get to the bus station to get to the airport.  Having successfully made it on time I had the luxury of a 16 hour flight into Sydney with no stops and only 2 hours worth of sleep inside me; so to keep myself aloft, a couple of double espresso’s were needed.  The plane ride was great; first time in a Jumbo and first time flying with Quantas – who must have been informed that I was on the flight as they tried giving me food every 10 minutes.  Other than that, it went really quickly; watched a few good films... but no sleep.

So arrive at Sydney airport, haven’t showered for the best part of two days, still wearing my Boca Juniors shirt, straw trilby perched on top of my head and the tired eyes of someone who looks like they’ve spent the last 5 weeks in South America on Crack.  Needless to say I got pulled up and questioned at every point possible within the airport and just as I was breathing the fresh Australian air, I had to empty the entire contents of my pockets and all of my bags onto a huge table whilst they: i. Went through all of my clothing/pockets/books/every piece of paper; ii. X-rayed my empty bags to look for hidden drug pockets; iii. Took swabs of the inside of my bags and shoes; and iv. Questioned me repeatedly for about 45 minutes about my trip, where I’m staying, how I’ve funded it, etc. in the event that I slip up...  Nevertheless!! Made it through and jumped a taxi straight to the hostel.

Welcome to Sydney indeed!!

Elephant Hostel... 84% rating on Hostel World; not too sure why.  Completely boring, staff awful, showers left much to be desired and after Skyping my cousin he just laughed, said that he’d stayed there and was there still mould in the fridges?  Yes, yes there was.  So after a couple of nights there I moved to a much better one; in the Kings Cross area; which coincidently  has one thing in common with our Kings Cross; Red light district... Jackpot!!

So, back tracking.  I arrived at the hostel at around 9pm and decided to do a quick walk around of the area which ended up sitting in a bar at the Rocks bringing a nice cold Schooner of Toohey’s looking over the harbour with the gigantic bridge to my left and Opera House to my right; heaven!

Nice early start the next morning and decided to take the free walking tour of Sydney which lasted about 4 hours and was pretty damn good.  We started off at the Town Hall and ended on the Rocks directly opposite the Opera House; passing through the QVB, Hyde Park, Parliament, Old hospital, Harbour Bridge etc...  Having met a couple of people on the tour, the afternoon was spent having lunch and generally just wandering around town.  From all the walking and previous days travelling I just completely crashed out on the night at around 9pm and didn’t stir until around 9 the following morning; longest sleep I’ve had in years!!

Right; day 2: Valentine’s Day... and what better way of spending Valentine’s Day on your own?  Spending money and getting drunk.  Out of the hostel by 11 and a great way to start the day by heading into city centre and finding a department store called ‘David Jones’ which is the closest resemblance to Selfridges that I could find.  Firstly, as I walked in my eyes were dragged towards a small stage and a huge banner stating that Miranda Kerr (Super and Victoria Secrets model) was due in store in approx. 15 minutes to talk about her skincare range; so I did the best I could to push through all the model-wannabes lined up to get my way right to the front and just next to all of the photographers.  It is safe to say that she is quite possibly the hottest person I have ever seen!!  20 minutes later and having taken enough photos to fell an album I headed upstairs to purchase a couple of tees and a nice shiny pair of Gold framed Ray Ban aviator sunglasses.  Happy V-Day Alex!!  Lunch came in the form of an amazing steak sandwich in a bar called Vault and dessert courtesy of – the highly recommended by everyone who has been to Sydney – Max Brenner for a huge Banana Split Waffle with an epic amount of chocolate sauce.  After lunch I took a walk across town towards Darling harbour which has the Sydney Aquarium and the Maritime Museum within, complete with a large Naval destroyer (HMAS Vampire) and a large Submarine in the docks.  I decided for the Aquarium as I had been told that the sharks that are in there are pretty damn cool.  More than cool were the 4 metre Reef sharks and I managed to get there just in time for feeding.

For the evening, there was only one thing to do and that was get plastered!!  With the people I met on the tour the day earlier and a few guys from the hostel we decided to drink between us 8 litres of Goon (cheap boxed wine) and then hit a couple of bars to drink away the rest of the night...

The next day was a write-off.  Having woken up at about mid-day, it was a struggle to even reach for the Nurofen, let alone get up and move.  So, with the weather looking pretty nice out there was only one place to head with a raging hangover; Bondi beach for greasy food and sun.  Bondi beach is a damn cool place; a lot of surfers, lots of good looking girls and crystal clear water.  After a few hours just relaxing and not really doing a lot else is was back to the hostel where at around 8pm I went for a nap only to wake up around 7am the next morning.

The next day was something I’d been looking forward to since arriving in Sydney, which was to climb to the top of Sydney Harbour Bridge!!  Won’t say anything more about this as there will be a separate post for the bridge...  I finished at the bridge climb around 2pm and headed back into the Harbour and walked around the Circular Quay to the Opera House to see the views from the other side.  The Opera House is just an amazing building; the architecture is incredible and the positioning right on the tip of the harbour makes it stand out better than any other building.  After walking around the Quays for a while I headed back to the hostel via the Botanical Gardens which are situated behind the Opera House and give fantastic views across the whole of the Harbour.  The Gardens were amazing; huge open spaces right in the middle of the city and a large array of wildlife from biiiiiiiiiig spiders... to Giant Bats hanging in the trees.  There are apparently 20,000 bats within Sydney, with the majority living within the trees of the Botanical Gardens and they come alive at night and can be seen swooping across the whole city.  The night was supposed to be an easy one as we were planning a big session on Friday night; however back at the hostel there were a couple of new arrivals who were up for a few drinks, so what better way than to demolish another 4 litre box of Goon and see where the night took us... Not very far actually as one of the new guys (bloke called Choon from Hong Kong; but he insisted everyone called him Jackie Chan...) managed to smash an emergency breakglass panel, causing the hostel to be evacuated and leaving him with a $500 payment to the Fire Brigade for a non-emergency call-out.  Pretty much time for bed after all the shenanigans.

Friday was a nice relaxing day up until the point of 6pm when the Goon decided to show its face again and the party was heating up.  At around 11 headed to The Soho club in Kings Cross which was absolutely heaving!!  The music was pumping and the dancefloor was beckoning; and as we are all quite hammered at the time there was only one place to head!  After an hour solid cutting all of the standard Roadhouse style shapes it got to the point where it was unbearable to move as the place was so packed; therefore, time to move on.  The next bar was the typical Irish bar; O’Malley’s; which served up the first pint of Guinness to touch my lips in 5 weeks.  It was magical!!  After a couple of pints of the black stuff it was dancing time and O’Malley’s served up the only thing that you’d expect from an Irish bar in the middle of the red light district of Sydney... Party classics!!  Cue: Whitney (RIP), Britney, MJ, Vanilla Ice... the list goes on.  I also managed to adopt a following of a few 40 year old blokes from Up North who tried to keep up with the shapes being cut, but actually looked more like they were about to have a heart attack...  Ended up leaving the bar at 4ish only to find the most amazingly named place ever; Abra-Kebab-Ra!!!

Saturday... Another written off day with the mother of all hangovers that could only be cured with a couple of large cups of coffee and a meat pie.  The remainder of the day was just spent kicking back at the harbour before pretty much repeating the previous night.

Sunday; no hangover for some strange reason!! Expecting it to kick in at some point; however the night before we’d all decided to make it an early start and head out of town to the ‘Featherdale Wildlife Park’ to visit Skippy and all of his mates.  The park was actually really good! As soon as we got in there were Kangaroos and Wallabies roaming freely all over the place and loads of Koalas just perched on branches throughout the park to hold and have pictures taken with.  The highlight of the park though was the Freshwater Crocodile... which I can only describe as an absolute beast!!  The Croc was 4.5 metres in length with quite possibly the biggest head I’ve ever seen.  Another highlight was obviously my favourite thing ever; the Penguins!! When I win the lottery, these will be my first purchase!!  There was so cool and as soon as they saw a camera they all waddled over and stood in a big group facing the camera ready for their picture.

The park closed at 5 and it was straight back to the hostel to grab my bags, wave goodbye to Sydney and get the coach up the coast to Byron Bay where I’ll be staying for 5 days for a bit of rest, relaxation and a lot of fun from a very great height...

x

The Bucket...

After the Boca Juniors game five of us headed back to the hostel and hit the bar beneath pretty hard...  Just as we were warming up, the conversation turned to bucket lists.  What are the top 5 things on each person’s bucket list?  A few rubbish ideas were thrown around and we managed to settle on a few that seemed easy enough to tick of within the next few months...

Highlights included:

-          - Climb Kilimanjaro

-          - Travel to all continents

-          - Visit 30 countries before 30

-          - Be fluent in another language

My 5 to accomplish for the next year are...

-          - Complete a Bungee jump

-          - Get Tattooed

-          - Learn to play the Guitar

-          - Swim with Sharks

-          - (...after meeting a couple of great Dutch guys) Stay on a boat in Amsterdam

Let’s see how many can be crossed off!!!

Last night in South America... Boca Boca !!!

Waking up feeling fresh after the day in Colonia it was finally the end for Part I of the journey.  Kate was flying back to London this evening and I fly out to Sydney the following morning.  What better way to complete the South American tour by visiting one of Buenos Aires best loved things; Boca Juniors.  Those who don’t know; Boca Juniors is the main football team within Buenos Aires and is famed for having one of the most passionate following to any team.

Kate didn’t have to leave until around half 5, so we headed out for the last time and made our way to the Botanical gardens close to Palermo.  We wandered around the gardens for an hour or so before lying down and catching a bit of sun for a few hours.  We have also managed to get ourselves right in the middle of a film set... and after the entire crew pretty much setting camp up around us; it was time to head off.

After the emotional send-off Kate was on her way to the airport and I had about 20 minutes to thrown on the Boca Juniors shirt, meet Matt and Mike and sink a couple of quick pints before heading out.  We were picked up by the guide and all squeezed into a packed mini-bus where we met the two Italian guys from earlier on in the week, a couple of Welsh lasses and a Dutch girl.

For 10 blocks in all directions around the stadium the roads are completely sealed off for match days.  There is also a ban for selling alcohol within this area.  Leading up to the stadium we were ushered through 6 security checkpoints where the tickets are checked and each person is frisked by the military police.  Having got through the first 3 checkpoints, our guide took us to one of the only places where you could still drink within the zone; which closely resembled his friend’s house...  So a few beers and a couple of sausage baguettes later, we were heading towards the stadium.

The stadium is pretty huge; holding approx. 49,000 at full capacity.  The two end stands – of which we were in the North side – were completely standing.  We arrived pretty early and managed to first see the 2^nd half of the reserves match.  As the stadium started filling up the guide begun to tell us about the supporters of Boca Juniors.  The main hooligan side of the crowd we directly opposite us in the South stand; and are named ‘the 12^th man’.  As the South stand filled up, large flags and banners were being put up all around the stadium in the Boca colours of Blue and Yellow.  Within the 12^th man supporters they have the band playing continuously throughout the game with several drums and trumpets echoing around the stadium.  As the main bulk of 12^th man supporters enter the ground, a rhythmic beat starts and hundreds of flag-bearers pass through the crowd and the South stand clearly becoming absolutely full to capacity.

The atmosphere throughout the stadium was electric and as the teams came onto the pitch the volume almost doubled instantly.  The chanting was continuous throughout; however every so often the band would changed tune followed quickly by the increased crowd volume.  The South stand were non-stop and at periods of good football throughout the game everyone in the stadium would start jumping up and down in time with the beat to send a wave rippling across the crowd.

The game was really good; cup game vs. Olympio so Boca had to win.  Before the game a six of us put in 2 pesos bets each on the correct score.  Having seen their scoring record for the past few games I went for a nice 3-0 win.  Although they were lucky to not be 1-0 down within the first minute as Olympio came straight out of the blacks and forced a really good save by the Boca keeper.  The game settled down a bit after that and shortly before half time Boca took the lead with a great strike.  In the 2^nd half, the Olympio again started well and had a goal disallowed for a fail on the goalkeeper early on in the half.  But Boca again took control and outplayed them for the majority of the half and were rewarded with another goal which sent the entire stadium crazy.  There were a lot of chances late on in the game, but they couldn’t find that 3^rd goal to seal me the bet win and it finished 2-0 to Boca Juniors.

We got back to the Hostel at around 11.30 and thought as the night was still young, we’d head downstairs to the bar/club to get what I can only describe as completely plastered... Everything was going well until I spotted the nice new un-opened bottle of Jagermeister.  The Jagerbombs flowed continuously for about half an hour and the dancefloor was looking very tempting!!  Fast forward another few hours; 6am time for bed!! Three alarms set for 7.30am and I still nearly slept through and ended up having to run through the streets of Buenos Aires with an 18kg rucksack on my back to make sure I got on the bus for the airport on time!!

Managed to just make it and looking forward to a nice 16 hour flight across the Pacific... Destination: Sydney!!

x