134 metres up !

Well as I mentioned the other day, I had booked to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge and tick off another bucket list item. From where I was staying, I could see the bridge from my bed so when the day dawned fine and sunny I got online and booked my spot. I would have been very disappointed if I had booked in advance and ended up with a wet dismal day like many recent days here in Sydney !
The Bridgeclimb base was just down the road from where I was staying, only a few minutes walk away. After checking in you are sorted into your group, breathalysed (!) and then given your overalls to wear. You are not allowed to wear watches or jewellery so then you have to go through a metal detector before moving along to the next stage, where they start fitting you out with safety belts, radios, jackets,etc. Everything except the caps is clipped on to prevent it dropping off and perhaps hitting somebody below, which is why you are not allowed to take your own cameras on the climb (and so that you have to buy their photos, which are not cheap!)
Finally you are all kitted out and lead out to the “launch pad” as they call it where you clip on to the safety wire and walk out on to the bridge proper.
After climbing lots of ladders, traversing many gangways and squeezing through a couple of narrow spaces you come out on to the top arch and start climbing upwards. The lower part is quite steep, but you get plenty of chances to stop and rest if you are feeling a bit puffed. They have several groups up on the bridge at any one time so you have to stop and wait for the group ahead of you to have their photos taken and move on. There were 15 people in our group, and probably about 5 or 6 groups on the bridge at any one time, so that is several hundred people a day doing the climb.
Finally you get right to the very top, 134 metres above water level, standing on top of 52,800 tonnes of steel and around 6 million rivets. Time for the obligatory group photo:

And then it’s time to head back down…..
From start to finish it probably took nearly 4 hours, so it is not something to squeeze into a couple of spare hours of your holiday, best to allow a full day. At over $250 or more depending on the time of day, plus extra for photos and souvenirs, it’s not exactly cheap but then again, bucket list stuff rarely is !