Sydney Harbour Bridge Discovery Climb
(photo: © 2006 OTTTO Holdings (Aust.))

Goooood morning GBD!  Guess what…Lindsey told me that Dez responded to your comments, so I thought I’d post them here in case any of you missed it.

Hi Girls by Design.  The trip in New Zealand was one of the best.  The country is amazing and the people are true to form.  Kind and caring.

G –  Yes, the fire was fun.  I was next to so much water and no real danger of it becoming out of control.  I made it as big as I could – it was one of my best.

MarilyneL – I did feel safe.  I was a little freaked about the bombs going off.  I feel even safer when I’m way away from people.  I took me quite a lot of effort to get out to that spot.  Less chance of someone coming along.  I love to camp, so I keep only good thoughts.

Jessica & Emma-Lu – You can come with me.  I will be doing a trip in 2011 to New Zealand.  You should have plenty of money saved by then.  Don’t forget the saving tips I gave you.

I love hearing from you girls.  Keep them coming.  You Girls are amazing.  I would love to hear from more of you.  Off on my next adventure.

And without further ado, here’s Dez to tell us about her climb up the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  As you can see from the teeny cars in the photo, that’s quite a climb!

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What’s a trip to Sydney without climbing the Harbor Bridge? I began my career as a climber when I was 10 ½ years old, when at 12 midnight I climbed a 250 foot water tower.  The next day I climbed a 500 foot trussed bridge and slept overnight hanging from a bivwack underneath.  It was amazing.  Climbing the Harbor Bridge was like being 10 1/2 again.

I decided to try the Discovery Climb, a variation introduced in November 2006, which instead of walking along the top of one of the arches, we made our way along steel paths through the substantial metal structures supporting them.  This climb too emerges at the top of the bridge and affords plenty of time to enjoy the views and have photographs taken of you.  In addition, what the climb offers is the chance to see close up one of the world’s great suspension bridges: huge great girders and pylons, solid panels and bearing pins, endless rows of rivets.  It is a triumph of engineering; I just want to unhook my line and climb higher.  However, I have a suspicion they are keeping an eye on me.

We were lucky with Melissa, our tour guide, who, although a veteran of countless bridge climbs, remained totally enthused by the experience.  What an amazing job to go to on a Monday morning and how alive she makes you feel.  Melissa raced us through the history of the building of the bridge from the turning of the first sod in July 1923 to the grand opening on March 19, 1932.  She threw in some of the statistics (total bridge length: 1,149 metres; height: 134 metres; weight of steelwork: 53,140 tons; number of rivets: six million; number of deaths during construction: 16.  It is a long way down; however, one man fell – and lived!  Good on ya mate!

There were plenty of sights to look at along the way.  Looking back towards the Rocks area close to where we started out, she said: “That’s where the convicts arriving on the first ships were told to put up their tents.”  Humm, Melissa told us she was a sixth-generation Australian and that one of her ancestors from Ireland had been sentenced to seven years’ hard labor in the colony for stealing a cow.  “They were very harsh in those days,” she said.  I would say so!

Her joking eased what was in parts a fairly tiring climb for some, with lots of narrow passageways and ducking to avoid steel girders.  I happened to be looking the wrong way and hit my head on one.  The Discovery Climb is a bit more technical, but in the end, you reach the same height.
Although there is not really an age limit on people doing the harbor bridge climbs, they do involve a reasonable degree of fitness and dexterity.  The last thing you want is a fear of heights – lucky for me, I have a thing for them.  I asked our guide the age of the oldest person to climb the bridge – “I believe 100,” said Melissa. “Our older climbers tend to train for several months beforehand, but then the sense of achievement when they get to the top is all the greater.”  I hope when I’m 100 I’m still climbing.

Overall, this was an amazing day for me.  I got to relive fond memories of when I started out and enjoy some of the best views Australia has to offer.  If you ever get a chance to come to Sydney take some time – GO CLIMB!

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I wanna climb a bridge!  Except if I tried to do that around here, I’d probably get arrested.  Although it wouldn’t be the first time.  Just kidding.  Or am I?

Aaaaaand…how did your challenges go?  Last week Dez challenged you to face one of your fears. Alyssa wanted to stare down a humpback whale, but those are hard to come by.  So she ate some sushi instead.  Does that count?  Because technically whales aren’t fish.  And by the way, I’m totally making that up.  About the sushi I mean.

As for me, I tried to use a public toilet without going through the laborious process of wiping the seat clean and laying down tissue on the top of the seat.  C’mon, you guys know what I’m talking about.  Because seriously…you look at some of those toilet seats and you wonder if they do the sprinkle twinkle dance or something before they do their business.  But I digress.  So I tried to bypass the whole pre-sit down ritual, but when you consider that I’m the type of person who would hose down the seat with radioactive detergent if I could, I HAD to wipe down the seat…couldn’t be helped.  I did, however, skip laying down the tissue, and I’m happy to report that my butt cheeks did NOT, in fact, rot off as I feared they would.

Thanks to Dez and Lindsey!