Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb

I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do it. I walked down the street from my hostel, the Sydney Harbor YHA, to the Bridge Climb office, just to see if there were any tour slots available. Luckily, the last day climb had an opening, so I booked it. Now, I like to say that I have an unnecessary fear of heights. Airplanes? No worries. Ski lifts? Please. Empire State Building? Cake walk. But put me on the edge of the Grand Canyon or up on Middle Teton or out on one of the Sears Tower's glass-bottomed sky boxes? Give me an extra set of pants because I'll probably wet myself!

I did get some good practice this morning, though. Before I left my hostel in Katoomba, I walked down to "Scenic World" which is a little theme park of sorts where you can ride skyways across the Jamison Valley, take the world's steepest railway down into the valley to a boardwalk going through the Australian Rainforest, and then take a tram back up to the top. Maybe I just have a fear of falling because I was fine on the skyways and the tram but the train was a little nerve-racking every time the seating-cars tilted a little more forward:

For the most part, Scenic World was a bust. BUT the skyway paused 270 meters above the valley floor at one point and you could look straight down the entire distance because the center part of the cable car's floor was glass -  the frosted kind that turns clear with the flick of a switch.

The Scenic Railway heading back up its 52° incline

Scenic World is based around the coal mining operations of the 19th century

My first walk through a rainforest!

View from the sky tram of "Orphan Rock"

The Three Sisters peaking out from the morning fog

Looking straight down to the valley bottom

The other passengers in the skyway chuckled when I asked to get my photo taken like this

Last look at the eucalypts

I left the Blue Mountains and upon arrival at my hostel in Sydney, my Bridge Climb story resumes. I had been told that the Bridge Climb was not an option. I, therefore, without thinking about it too much, purchased my ticket. A few hour later, I was in the preparation room, undressing, and putting on the grey jumpsuit. Our guide, Romeo (no joke), kept attaching things to our belts like a fleece, a raincoat, a handkerchief (weird word), our hats, our radios... I think I was wearing about 10 extra pounds of stuff! I also mentioned to Romeo if he had any tips for people with a fear of heights. He was great and had me be the first one, behind him, in line. He was very perceptive and could tell a few times I was very anxious.

Everyone told me the first part was the worst. They were mostly right. You walk under the bridge's roadway on these narrow gangways with a metal mesh floor, so you can see the ground beneath you. You're harnessed in the entire time with these awesome little gear-ball things which allow you to seamlessly stay attached to a cable that runs the entire length of the walk. So the metal grating was scary, but I got through it. You then ascend four sets of ladders which put you about 30 feet above the road deck. Now you're on top of the top arch of the bridge and from there your walkway is about one meter wide with about 1 meter of flat steel on either side. It actually feels really roomy. We had headphones on the entire time so Romeo could talk to all of us at once and he gave anecdotes about various Sydney sights and landforms. It was cloudy and grey and very windy (gusting up to 40 km/hr), but the views were still amazing! We got up to the top and I had no problems whatsoever. Along the way up and once you're at the top, individual and group photos are taken, and since our group only had seven people in it, we got a little bit of extra time to enjoy the scenery. At the top, however, the wind really started to pick up and in order to get down we had to cross a little walkway over the road to the opposite side of the bridge. That walkway has no buffer zone on either side, so if you look over the railing, you're looking straight down to the roadway! Remember, I'm 134 meters above the water, which is still pretty high above the roadway. The winds really started to pick up at this point and Romeo kept telling us to look down on the roadway to look for "this" or "that" and my knees started wobbling. He took one more photo of everyone (my worst one), and we started heading back down the bridge. All in all, an amazing adventure. Totally worth every dime!

My Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb photo. Making the Michigan "M"!

Tomorrow is another adventure! Since I didn't see any Australian wildlife in the wild, I booked a behind-the-scenes tour of the Aussie Animals at the Toronga Zoo in Sydney! They said to be sure to bring my camera since I'd have many opportunities for photo-ops with the animals.

That, AND my two friends from Glee Club who are here are going to meet up with me at some point later in the day! Can't wait to see them!