RadioRoryIt makes sense to want a good stiff drink before climbing to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. After all, it’s more than 1,300 steps to reach the summit of the 440 foot span. It requires a bit of courage and a lot of faith. Faith in your creator or faith in the engineers who installed the tourist walkway in 1998, more than 60 years after the bridge first opened.
What amazes me is just how many people make the climb.
And they fork over a pretty penny to do it. Bridge Climb experiences can cost over $300 per person and the costs keep going up when you add photo packages. Let’s face it, you want the photos and you’re at their mercy. You cannot bring a camera with you on the climb. No phones, no cameras, no headgear cams, no armband cams, no cameras, no cameras, no cameras. Get my drift?
Before putting on one of their ugly, pocket-free jumpsuits, you will be given a breathalyzer test. Apparently booze and bridge climbing don’t mix. I won’t elaborate, but let me just say I question the accuracy of the test. But it takes well over an hour just to get suited up and prepped for the climb. That means the cider you may have had to calm your nerves has long since been processed and you’re stone cold sober when facing the obstacle course before you.
On the ground, you’ll practice on replica staircases and get used to the tether that could keep you from, well, “not successfully completing” your adventure. The tether supplies a great sense of security, but the system is far from perfect. For much of the climb, particularly the part before the arch, you’re tethered to a metal cable that runs along a walkway like a railing. If you’re 5’8”-ish, that cable comes to your waist and you’re fine. For me, the thin metal rope was mid-thigh and if I went over, I was going OVER. Sure, the tether would stop the worst from happening, but it is unnerving.
For most people, climbing the arch is actually the easy part. It’s climbing through the stanchions to reach the top side of the archway that’s the real challenge. There are narrow ladders and small steps and you’re doing this in the middle of a large group. If the person in front of you is too slow, or too fast, you’re stuck. It’s single file all the way in the heat or in the cold. You’ll get a bit of a history lesson during your climb from your group leader via a headset and you’re encouraged to ask questions.
I should have asked “Why are we stopping?”
At the summit we cross over from the east side of the span to the west for the descent. Rather than walk the full arch, you basically walk up half, change lanes, and walk back down on the opposite side of the eight-lane bridge. I did the sunset climb and the view of downtown Sydney at this time of day amazes.
One of the most spectacular sights that you won’t find mentioned in any brochure is the bats. These things are the size of Bruce Wayne and swoop over, around, and under the bridge at dusk. Google says they are grey-headed flying foxes which have a three-foot wingspan. They looked a heck of a lot bigger than that but they certainly kept our group focused on completing the climb and getting back inside ASAP.
I was in awe of the bats but my focus was getting back on the ground, out of the jumpsuit, and into the Fortune of War. Australia’s oldest pub is located just up the road from the Bridge Climb offices.
After that adventure, I was ready to fail my next breathalyzer test.