Bondi and the Bridge

Sunday, November 6

We woke up to a gorgeous, sunny day. Tisha took us on a beach walk that started at Bronte (her local beach) and ended at the famous Bondi beach. It was the first weekend of “Sculpture By The Sea” so there were crowds of people doing exactly what we were doing. Local and international artist submit artwork to be displayed on the beaches and the surrounding area. I think Tisha’s favorite was the oversized beach chair and flip flops. I liked the big red intestines on the rocks.

In the afternoon, we planned to do a Bridge Climb at the Harbor Bridge, which is exactly what it sounds like. We were running late due to an overlong lunch at a poorly managed restaurant and missed our reservation for the climb. Luckily, there was space on the next climb.

The Harbor Bridge is one of the focal points in Sydney Harbor (along with the Opera House). The climb takes about 3 hours and is fairly intense. Getting to the top of the bridge basically entails climbing ladders and steep staircases, which wouldn’t be so scary if it wasn’t 440 feet high and looking down on 12 lanes of traffic and a harbor filled with ice-cold water and all sorts of hungry fishies. The Bridge Climb people had it all worked out, though. They made us sign all sorts of waivers, take a breathalyzer test, suit up in very unflattering jumpsuits, and practice our climbing techniques on a small scale version of the bridge before actually letting us outside. I was momentarily afraid that my enormous tussin intake would make me fail the breath test, but I passed. Suckers!

Our climbing guide, Luke, was a real dreamboat. I wanted to put him in my pocket and bring him home. At the start of the climb, he said anyone who was nervous should stand right behind him. Of course, I jumped right up there. Truth told, I wasn’t that nervous, but Luke had this Young-Leif-Garret-Before-He-Crippled-His-Best-Friend-in- a-Drunk-Driving-Accident-and-Became-a-Bloated-and-Bald-Has-Been vibe going on and that was really working for me.

Once we were actually on the bridge, it wasn’t that scary. Luke kept us amused with stories and trivia about the bridge and the major sites of the city (The oldest bridge climber was over 100 years old! A man once fell from the bridge… and survived!) and the views were spectacular. We weren’t allowed to bring our cameras on to the bridge (because they want to sell us souvenir shots) but I think that was actually a blessing in disguise. I think we spend so much time looking through the lens of the camera that we don’t take the time to really look at the sites we’re trying to capture.

When we got to the top of the bridge, Luke said, “Well, here we are: 183 meter, 440 feet, or 5.2 seconds. However you want to look at it.”

It was a great day, but all things come to an end, and the Robitussin eventually wears off.