The Harbour Bridge

The Harbour Bridge. It always gives me a feeling of wonder, and amazement...especially when you travel on it. I look out of my office window everyday, and get to see it in full view, always busy with cars, trams, trains passing through the over a 300 tonnes of weight. Its got 600 over thousand over hot iron rivets (Aussie-made) hammered into by workman in the 1920s. And, guess what -- there are over 10 million over rivets in the sea bed below the Harbour Bridge. The noise of the work site went all the way to Manly beach, and could be heard clean over Bondi. WOW! That's loud! -- And for that, the man who built the Harbour Bridge -- whateverhisnameis - gave the Luna Park as a gift to the residents of Sydney, as a token of appreciation, for the 8year patience that was extended while the bridge was in the making.

I know, its the definately not the finest architecture compared to the many huge bridges in the world, for instance, the London Bridge facing the English Channel, or the hanging bridge of San Frans But, I can't deny that Sydney's Harbour Bridge is lovely.

For the past months, I've been crossing it, once, or twice, took a ferry and went by it. Spied on it from both sides of the bridge, but never been on it.. From 134 meters below at ground level, I look up and spot little groups of ant-like people climbing the massive structure of steel and structure. It looks fun to be that high up there, perching precariously and cat-walking over 100meters above the ground. Its like walking along the ledge of a 44- storey building. Cool! I know I'm a girl that love heights. Never a doubt -- and I might enjoy one of those climbs, standing on top of Sydney! However, upon checking its 178 bucks to do one climb like that. No way!

Anyway, we had a team outing yesterday. In the email, it stated that its

Objectives : Team session to review current status, bring comfortable gear we are going outside,
sportshoes as we will be walking lots

Location : To be Advised

I picture the team sitting in a round circle in the park, maybe the nearby Hyde Park or The 200 year old Royal Botanic Gardens behind our office. Oh well, its just one of those team sessions that we are having. I didn't really think much about it really.

Then, the surprise came, at around 11:30 -- where my boss rounded the team into the conference room up at the front of the office, and fed us with yummy sandwiches... And, he grinned at me and showed me a copy of the colorfully printed Sydney Harbour BridgeClimb phamplets. I was like.. gasp! you mean we are going for this?! COOL! REALLY???!!.... I mean, you really mean that??

WHOOPIE!!! I was pretty excited, and I was like you guys all knew about it? Awww.. they're so sweet... they knew I wanted to do the Bridge Climb, but just didn't find enough justification to spend that type of money. So, they brought me up there.. courtesy of the company. Thank you Vxxx -- that's my company.. not revealing much about who I'm working for. *winkz*

The whole process of the Bridge Climb took about 3 1/2 hours. From the part of sitting in the 1st Room to the Simulation Climbing portion. I feel like I'm a product being whizzed through an assembly line. But, I am very very impress at how well organise it was, and never once did I feel helpless with the strange looking safety gadgets that we will be using. Even the familiar karabiners are not in sight... we get some sophisticated looking "thing" at the end of our safety line. Cool! Instructions were kept simple, and short, easy understanding. Its fantastic. They provide everything -- from jump suits.. which made all of us look like Yogi Bears when we go without our safety belt around the waist... It was hilarious.

Room 1 -- Introduction Room

We can herded into this comfortable room, going through the basic run down on safety. That is ..

1) Breath Test --- Nope, no drinking prior to Bridge Climb .. we get a breatherliser.. not exactly the ones we see that the Traffic Police uses.

2) Disclaimer Forms -- Those that require us to sign away our lives just in case we trip and find ourselves plunging down the bridge. Oh by the way, it takes 5.14 sec to drop from the top of the arc to the sea below...

Looking at the brighter side of things, at least there wouldn't be that much of a mess for the cleaners below. *wince*

3) Surrending any medication of any kind. If one's asmathic, diabetic.. or whatever that may cause you to black out, fall over, and cause alot of security issues to the BridgeClimb.

4) Shoe check -- Only sneakers are allowed.

Room 2 -- Assessment of Gear Size to fit Each one

1) We went one round introducing one another -- a total of 10 of us in the team. Reason for doing that -- at least, you know what name to shout for rather then just a generic "Help" or "Look Out!"

2) We get assessed what size gear we are to wear. I have to say that the lady doing it wasn't that accurate in doing it -- Peter got one that is probably 2 sizes too big for him-- and mine you, his not a small man. His over 6foot tall. Mine.. it fits pretty well.. for once. *grinz*

Room 3 -- Lets dawn on Gear and strip off our baggage.

1) We're not allowed to carry objects up -- hair clips, watches, necklaces, large earrings, huge rings, just in case it falls out, and hit someone below. Ouch! Deadly little earring... Headlines read "Motorist killed by falling Earrings from the Harbour Bridge." It is possible... it might fall out, jab that poor fella in the eye, and he could just loose control and a) Drive off the bridge because he can't see a thing, b) Drive into a carful of lanes and hence, getting knocked by the train/tram/truck or any other forms of fast moving vehicle.

2) We get into our jump suits and back all our jackets and other nicknaks in the lockers provided.

Room 4 -- More Gear!!!

1) We get herded to 3 bars -- having safety harnesses attached to them. No pictures cz we can't take anything out -- just ourselves, and our jump suits. In no time, we got the harnesses on very quickly.. nice... we DO look very professional right now... (",)

2) To make us look even more of a professional climber -- we get served with a wide array of accessories that we can put on while on our climb. There were Beanies and caps to choose from, little hankies with little rubber strips hooked around your wrist, to wipe down anything you need. They even provide scrungies for the ladies who comes in free-falling-hence-turn-murder-prone hairclips... And, of course, all these comes in little attachables to be attached to the jumpsuit -- just in case any one of the objects comes off and tries to end some motorist's life down below the bridge.

3) All geared up! whew! -- time for simulation climb.. oh yes -- despite the many efforts to try to stop any thing free falling down 134 m, they've really forgotten to warn people not to spit. Or maybe, they just didn't want to remind climbers that they CAN actually do that.. tsk-tsk-tsk *evil*

Room 5 -- Climb Simulation

1) Next, the Simulator -- its kinda scary because, its in full view of everyone, and the whole structure's made up of steel. Yes, just like the Harbour Bridge, all steel.. that's why its called a simulator. Doh! We are taught some basic Dos and Don'ts over here, and just have a feel of how climbing a ladder feels like. Its kinda strange, having to test your ability in climbing a ladder... Does anyone NOT know how to climb one? Hmmm.... Anyway, off we go! it was fun.

Room 6 -- The Radio Room

1) in this area, we are told to stand in a roll, and place each tiny little radio kit of the person in front of us. Its really for us to listen to our Climb Leader, narrating on the lovely sydney we see below.. yes, very tourisy..... It made us look like cool espionage agents. Nice!

Out of Rooms and onto the Bridge

We make our way from the suit up area to the bottom of the Harbour Bridge.. amazingly, this is built right smack in the middle of residential areas, and we have to walk through it, passing strangers.. but it wasn't so bad.. its not a monkey suit that we are in... (",)

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With very cold hands -- that might be due to the fact that its really cold out there... we started our walk out onto the Bridge.. Narrow little steel mash -- even at the bottom, we are a few feet above the ground.. the wind was blowing at about 40knots (I think), and it was a pleasant stroll... just that the space was too durn small.. its just enough for a person to walk through -- there are areas in which you have to crouch low, and bend your knees to get over, lower your heads, just in case you smack right into a low, steel horizontal beam...

Our journey begins...