A Cloudy, Drizzly Day for Climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge
The rain held off, however, so it was pleasantly cool, 100% humidity.
The bridge climb was a 5-hour shore excursion, but most of it was changing, harnessing and other safety preparations. The elapsed time from leaving the changing area until our return was just 2 hours. Our guide, Peter, does this tour twice a day and was generous with his narration using a microphone for him and headphones for the 9 of us. We couldn’t take anything except our eyeglasses, and we wore only underwear under the provided coveralls. Not even our wrist watches were allowed! Everything was tethered to us, including the headphones, caps and eye glasses. Our possessions were safely stowed in lockers, the keys to which we carried around our necks.
We were even trained on the proper and safe way to climb and descend ladders before leaving. About 140 feet of the vertical gain was by ladder. Climbing the arch of the bridge was the easy part! Peter took pictures and a short video of each of us — singles like me, or couples — on the arch and at the top. We were able to purchase them as downloads at the bottom, and I paid $69.95 Australian for the entire set which I then shared with the others, not expecting the $40 in donations that three fellow climbers gave me! Here are two of my pictures, one on the arch and another at the top:
Interesting fact: The top of the arch is 440 feet above the water. The architect who designed the opera house made it 220 feet tall because he knew the two would be viewed together and he thought that would be the best ratio.
Rita chose not to do the climb, and I was a little concerned about it myself, but it was quite easy after all. Maybe taking two Advil before leaving the ship helped… They required a doctor’s letter for anyone (like me) who is over 70, and I was questioned about my fitness and whether I exercise daily. I lied. I walk daily, but I don’t “exercise” daily, as I should.
Back on the ship, we relaxed prior to meeting my Aussie schoolmate, David Wilmoth, and his wife Lori for dinner at Icebergs Dining Room and Bar on a cliff at Bondi Beach, about a 30-minute drive from downtown Sydney, where David and Lori will pick us up. David was an exchange student at our boarding school, Choate, and we were on the cross country team together. I haven’t seen him since graduation in 1965.
I’ll send this off prior to that engagement and may include a report about it tomorrow. Rita and I take a “Sydney Panorama Tour” tomorrow. She had originally planned a culinary tour of Sydney today but she canceled it when they changed the description of what it included. She stayed in the stateroom except for 2 hours while the ship’s crew fumigated it. Why? Because I had diarrhea two days ago! As I said in my original report, they take illness very seriously on cruise ships, but we thought fumigating was a little over the top!
Bye for now.