Kevin, Meesha, Catie and I decided to head off to Sydney on Sunday March 21st to check out The Rocks and Circular Quay (pronounced ‘key’). We arrived early in the morning and started down Pitt Street toward the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House. Because it was the weekend after St. Patrick’s Day, Sydney was having their St. Patrick’s Day parade. We stopped and watched it for a short while and got to see some of the beautiful floats and listen to the Irish announcer tell various anecdotes. I could barely understand the announcer over the speakers since it was so loud – and he was Irish. After we left the parade, we stopped into a shopping mall because Kevin wanted to check out some shops and buy some clothes. As we made our way through the mall, we quickly realized that it was (for the most part) out of our price range. We were happy to browse the shops without purchasing anything. Kevin did end up buying a screened t-shirt with a headphone-wearing dog on the front. Catie and I defined our ideal man based on photographs of models in the shop where Kevin got his shirt. Catie enjoys the scruffy, indie, hipster and of course, I opted for the nerd wearing a suit and bowtie. (Sounds a lot like James to me.) From there, we popped in a few more shops along the way, but finally made it to Circular Quay. This was my first official visit to see the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House! As we walked along the harbor Kevin and I discussed what the definition of a catamaran is and if the boats in the harbor fit that description. (They did!). There were aboriginal street performers playing didgeridoos and men on unicycles along the harbor walkway trying to engage the audience and make a few dollars. We continued along the walkway and headed into the markets that were set up in the middle of a street in The Rocks (a neighborhood, almost directly under the harbor bridge). These markets have booths with lots of hand made goods, jewelry, art, soaps, etc. After this, we walked over to the base of the bridge to check out the Bridge Climb.
Bridge Climb
Meesha and I decided to go ahead and do it, and Kevin and Catie would further explore Sydney while we were climbing. The climb was set to last three and a half hours, and we would climb all the way up the arch to the flags at the top, and back down the other side all the while getting amazing views of Sydney. So, we were briefed on our special suits and the contraption that would hold us to the bridge and we had a practice climb on a weird staircase structure. After this, we set out from the “flight deck” and started the bridge climb. (The flight deck is simply the place where we attach our suits to the wire and that leads out to the catwalks on the bridge.) Because I was so nervous, our guide for the day suggested that I go to the front of the line with her so that she could motivate me and ensure I was okay! She was a super nice and fun girl. The first part of the bridge was the worst part though. In order to get on the huge arch of the bridge, we had to walk over a series of tiny, wobbly catwalks. The bottoms were grated and so you could see straight down to the roads below. My legs were visibly shaking and I felt pretty faint. Our guide said that sometimes if you do not eat enough and are nervous your legs are likely to start shaking. We continued on and made our way to the base of the arch. Here, our guide took individual or group photos of the people on the climb. Meesha and I got our photo taken first and we were told to head partway up the arch. This gave us adequate time to take in the panoramic views of the Sydney harbor, and so many other amazing things. We were able to see Fort Denison - an old fort in the middle of the water that was used at one time to hold prisoners. Now it has been converted into a tourist attraction and people take boats out there daily to tour the tiny island and the building. We also saw an amusement park that is based on Coney Island called Luna Park. On the opposite side of the bridge was another harbor and the Anzac Bridge. We could see centre point and all of the large skyscrapers in Sydney and of course the Opera House! As we continued up to the summit, our guide told us about the construction of the bridge and about how dangerous it was. The construction workers did not have any safety equipment to keep them from falling off the bridge – what’s more – men on the arch would throw burning hot rivets to the men in between the arch’s and they would have to catch them with buckets. Despite this, there were minimal deaths during the construction of the bridge (I cannot remember the exact number, but it was very small and none were the result of falling off the arch’s). When we reached the summit, we had a group photograph taken of everybody in our group. We then screamed at the top of our lungs out toward the Opera House – and as weird as it was, it felt pretty good. We crossed over between the two arch’s and began heading down the opposite side. When we were off the main arch and climbing down the ladders to the catwalks, we were surrounded by traffic (cars, trucks and trains!) It was difficult to ignore the loud noises and the fact that everything is violently shaking. It was terrifying. But, when we got past the traffic and down to the catwalks again, we looked down and saw a field full of bunnies. They were black and white and really fat. Our guide figures that somebody had them as pets and let them into the wild. They have since procreated (as bunnies tend to do) and are everywhere beneath that part of the bridge. I was in heaven – the cutest, fattest Australian bunnies yet! We made our way back to the “landing strip” (the same spot as the flight deck) and went to get changed out of our bridge climb suits. From here we were given our Bridge Climb certificates with our names on them and our complimentary group photo! It was an excellent adventure – expensive, but worth it.
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