I’ve never considered climbing a bridge to be entertaining. Typically, when it comes to cables that hold up bridges I think of engineers or occassionally a disturbed person or two. Today, we did one of the more famous activities in Australia, the Sidney Bridge Walk. Initially we were not going to go because of the cost. But Uncle Barry made reservations for us to go. After a lunch of meat pie, one of our new favorite foods, Mel dropped us off at the bridge.

The first thing they put us through was ‘training’. We were given a jumper, utility belt with cable hooks, cap, hanky (for our sweat), windbreaker (for wind and rain) and headsets. All dressed up looking like one of skyscraper window washers, we then practiced going up and down ladders and walking while hooked up to the cable. We were instructed to go one at a time up and down ladders so that if a person slips, they wouldn’t take the person underneath with them.

Soon we were outside, going towards the bridge. Our guide spoke to us using these nifty little headsets that look like rectangular rubber blocks that sits in front of your ears rather than over them. I think the sound is carried through the skull. Fascinating, I think I need to get one of these, I usually hate wearing headphones, both the inserts and the over ear types b/c they make my ears hurt.

It was late afternoon so the sun wasn’t too hot and the wind was quite calm for being so high, so it was pretty ideal. We walked along narrow metal planks up one side of the bridge, stopped for pictures and then crossed over and walked down the other side. It was actually kinda cool watching all the cars below passing by. Along the way our guide gave a brief history of the bridge and all sorts of nifty tidbits that I don’t remember anymore. But the view at the top was gorgeous. They should have these types of tours for more bridges across the world.