Climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Ficus Macrophylla

After a very fine night's sleep, I was wide awake at about 6:00 a.m., the only evidence of a bit of jet lag so far. After composing and posting yesterday's blog entry, I went down to breakfast around 8:00 and found Bill & Robbie there already, but everyone else appeared shortly thereafter. There was a very nice breakfast spread that included a big bowl of stewed rhubarb, which made me very happy.

The main event for today was to be the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb. After breakfast we set out for the walk there, which took a little more than an hour. We strolled along the water around the Royal Botanic Gardens, coming around the tip of the peninsula in front of Mrs. Macquaries Point to find this beautiful view of the bridge and the Sydney Opera House, and found someone to take a photo of all of us.

From there, we continued around another small inlet from which we could see the city skyline. The gardens were beautiful, of course, but the trees that really appealed to me were the huge Ficus trees, with big, glossy magnolia-like leaves and enormous trunks. There were lots of noisy birds too, and these interesting, colorful ones poking around in the grass.

Finally we walked past the Opera House, the Circular Quay, which is the main Ferry Terminal, and finally up to the base of the bridge.

The bridge climb itself began at the south end of the bridge and from start to finish was an amazing experience. The preparation for the climb alone took about an hour. First, our group was shepherded into a room where we filled out an information form and release, and were each given a breathalyzer test before going to the next area. There, we stood in a circle and individually introduced ourselves to the group, said where we were from, etc., while the staff sized us up and gave each of us a special jumpsuit. On to a changing area, where we changed into our jumpsuits and had to leave EVERYTHING – wallets, cameras, jewelry, even watches – in lockers. We were given special clips for sunglasses and caps, then moved to the next station where we got harnesses and climbed a little mockup of some ladders and a platform to see how the harnesses worked. Next, we lined up for each of us to get earphones and a radio receiver clipped into a special compartment on the back of our harness so that we could hear the group leader as we climbed. In colder weather they would give out windbreakers or fleeces, and even gloves, but today it was warm enough that we could skip all that and only take handkerchiefs attached to our wrists. Finally, we entered a short tunnel where we clipped our harnesses to a cable that ran along the right side, and stayed clipped in like that for the next 2 hours or so. Then, the climb began. It wasn't at all difficult, although there were some tight squeezes and a few places where we had to duck under some beams, but the toughest part was a series of about 5 nearly vertical ladders that took us up between two lanes of traffic and into the main arch. From there we walked along the arch to the very top of the span, stopping quite a number of times to enjoy the view and hear stories about the construction of the bridge, some of the political intrigue surrounding its opening, and a bit about the engineering of the whole thing. With no cameras allowed we couldn't save these views, which is really a shame, but they were unbelievable. We picked the perfect day for this – mild, dry, a bit of a breeze, and hardly a cloud in sight. We could really see forever. Our group leader did have a camera and took photos along the way, which we were able to purchase on a memory stick at the end. Here are a few of those:

Finally, we reached the top, walked across a catwalk to the other side, and reversed course back down to the bottom, this time looking west across the harbor and suburbs out to a distant ridge of mountains.

It was – as they say on their website – really the climb of a lifetime!

Afterwards, we had a nice long lunch at a rooftop restaurant near the bridge, lingering to enjoy the gorgeous weather. We returned to the hotel around 4:00 for a quick change and turnaround, as we were heading back to the Circular Quay to take a 5:00 ferry to Manly, which is east of the city at the entrance to the harbor. In Manly, we were to have dinner after meeting Bill's old boss and his family, who had invited us over for drinks. The ferry ride took about 30 minutes, and was just another beautiful way to see the harbor and all of the boat traffic, several small islands, and the bridge and Opera House receding behind us.

We were greeted in Manly by the O'Malleys, and met what seemed to be the entire family at their beautiful home overlooking Manley Cove. They were all delightful and welcoming of the seven of us, and we had a wonderful visit, all the while enjoying the view from their terrace, where we watched the passing parade of ferries, followed by a large group of sailboats that came into the cove, the end of a sailing race.

Reluctantly, we left our hosts around 8:00 p.m. (and still broad daylight!) to go to dinner on the other side of the cove at the Manly Pavillion, another wonderful place with spectacular views over the water. It was a "small dish" restaurant, and the menu was divided into three columns: "Marine," "Flora" and "Fauna." Some of the interesting new seafoods that I tried were spanner crab, yabbie and wrasse. There was a Wagyu beef dish that was great, but the hands-down winner was the venison carpaccio. Naturally, there were also cocktails, plenty of wine and dessert, too.

That took 3-1/2 hours; we closed the place down and finally walked back to the pier. We boarded the 11:40 p.m. ferry back to Sydney, which gave us a great view of the city lights as we made our way through the harbor back to the ferry terminal.

Wow. A long day, but perfect in every way. There just aren't enough superlatives to describe it!