Travels of a Lifetime, VBlog Series: Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb

Series 3: Climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Australia


The air got colder as we started our ascent heading to the peak of the lower arch.  So I had to wear the fleece jacket attached to my belt. Aside from being suited in astronaut jumpsuit, I carried all the necessary gear like headphones, hats and a jacket provided by Bridge Climb.  Everything was attached to my belt.  We were only allowed to bring sunglasses, but the company provided a strap to secure them. Lockers were provided for all of our other personal belongings. At first, I was not happy at the rule of not being able to take even a phone camera with me to capture and Instagram a photo of my adventure. I thought it was another way of the Bridge Climb to make money from the photos because I had to add $54.00 to the actual cost for photos.  As we geared up, I began to understand that everything was for safety reason. The keyword there was to latch-on. Everything was attached to our belt latched on a wire rope all throughout the climb. Of the 3 ½ hours allotted to the climb, a good amount of time was spent on safety briefing and gearing up. Before gearing up, all thirteen of us went through a scanner and a breathalyzer.

Latched on a wire rope that started from the base (2nd floor), we walked on a narrow boardwalk past the Bridge base to the Bridge’s lower arch. Our guide told us about the history of the bridge and some light-hearted stories like the young guy, Kelly, who fell off the bridge and survived the fall. Our guide pulled-out her camera as we reached the peak of the lower arch. It was our first photo-op. She then started to point out and talk about some landmarks below: the iconic Opera House and the Darling Harbour, an island and the residence of the Prime Minister. Then, the challenging part: We took a very steep and narrow staircase to the upper arch (2nd photo-op). After which, it was easy to ascend to the top of the bridge. We were 134 meters above sea level with a 360-degree view of Sydney. Beneath us, the commercial boats shrunk into tiny toy boats. It was the last photo-op/video and was time for a celebration for making it to the very top.



The sun started to sink as we descended providing a beautiful backdrop of our adventures.  The noise of the zooming trains down below drowned our guides continuing narration of the history of the bridge.  Anyhow, I was still high on adrenaline at that point that it was hard for me to have a grasp of the bridge history and other points of interest that our guide was talking about.




Click  HERE (Bridge Climb)  to watch it on YouTube or press play to climb with me.


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