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!!

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