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Once again I woke up at the crack of dawn but forced myself to stay in bed and eventually must have nodded off cos when I next looked at the clock it was nearly 8am. I was up and showered and trying to quietly make myself some lemon tea when Rodd woke around 8.30ish so he jumped up and dressed while I whipped up some scrambled eggs for breakfast… gets way too expensive to buy breakfast, lunch and dinner every day on holidays so always nice to have a self contained apartment to make a few meals.
Todays plan was a day in Balmain so off around the corner to George St to catch the free 555 shuttle again, well it’s supposed to come every 10 mins but we waited over half and hour before the first one came and then it didn’t even stop!! About 10 mins later another arrived so we jumped on and were at Circular Quay once again. As we did yesterday we bought a Multi pass ticket which for $21 gives you unlimited rides on all ferries, buses and trains for 24 hours… pretty expensive though still I reckon compared to the $29 we paid for the metro ticket for a weeks unlimited travel in New York City earlier this year. I think if you’re here in Sydney for a week it’s cheaper but they don’t seem to have passes for just a few days.
Anyway…. Once we’d bought the passes we walked down to Wharf 5 and the ferry was already boarding so no waiting at all there…yay for once!! The trip over to Balmain is lovely with stops at Milsons Point and McMahons Point before our stop at Balmain East, I guess it took about 20 mins or so. When we got off the ferry we got on the bus that was waiting and once again using our multi pass travelled up Darling Road into Balmain. There we spent a few hours wandering the streets, looking at some gorgeous shops…. One shop was advertising 50% off so I thought I might pick up a bargain, yeah right…. 50% off for Balmain means it’s $300 instead of $600, a bit out of my league! I did buy a nice little light black jacket as I was feeling a bit chilly, probably could have picked one up at Supre for $15 but I bought mine for $39... Oh well at least I can say I’ve been shopping in Balmain!
We spent a bit of time trying to locate a Bakery that Rodds friend has owned for 20 years but after he asked several people he worked out they must have closed it in the last couple of months… bad timing!
All shopped out we jumped back on the bus down to the wharf and only waited about 10 mins for the ferry back to Circular Quay. From there we wandered over to the Rocks for lunch at Pancakes On the Rocks. This place was somewhere I used to go with my sisters and friends on weekend leave from boarding school about 30+ years ago and I just wanted to go back for old times sake. The meal was really nice, I had a spinach and fetta crepe with salad and Rodd had the Beef ribs with salad, we both enjoyed them but then I thought I’d better have a pancake…. I mean just for old times sake!! All the walking we’ve been doing and I know we’ll be doing more should make up for being a little naughty… we had a chocolate orange pancake, oh yum yum but just as well we won’t be having dinner til after 10 tonight cos we’re both full to the brim now.
After lunch it was rather hard to walk but we managed to wander a bit more and find where we need to be at 7pm for the bridge climb, from there we went up to Circular Quay train station and timed getting back to the hotel by train to Town Hall and a walk back to Kent St… in all only about half an hour.
We were so eager to get to the Bridgeclimb that we left our hotel at 6pm… it only took half an hour as per our test run so of course we were there half an hour too early which wasn’t too bad really cos it gave us a chance to have a look around at their museum and watch a slideshow of photos of the construction, we also took this time to buy ourselves a T-Shirt each so that we didn’t have to do that after the climb
Finally it was time to start!! One of the staff members took us all off to get kitted out, then we were given a trial run of climbing the stairs up and down , I guess this all took close to an hour with 14 people for him to check. Of the group climbing with us there was only ourselves and one other Australian couple, there was 3 from America, 2 from South Africa, 2 from Germany and 3 girls from Korea. Rodd and I wondered how many Australians do this or if it is primarily something foreign tourists do.
We were given headsets to hear the guides instructions and info. He was telling us about the building of the bridge throughout the whole climb. We all had headlamps, beanies, fleece jacket packs, and of course all the safety gear strapped and clipped on to us, it was a little heavy with everything attached but not too restricting. Our guide ( and I have to admit I never caught his name but he remembered all of ours ) then came in and ran through a few last instructions and then we were off.
The first 10 minutes is probably the worst part although I didn’t find it too bad but I can imagine some people might at this stage find it hard to go on…. You head out onto a very thin walkway that has two planks and thin metal railing so a lot of nothing space underneath and to both sides!! Once past this are the stairs, 5 sets of about 20 stairs that go straight up almost like a ladder, slightly strenuous but the hardest part for me was not bashing my knees on the metal steps.. I’m sure I’ve got bruises from that! Once up those stairs the actual walk on the span is easy, not at all scary cos there’s a wide gentle sloping walkway with a beam on either side so your not looking straight down.
We stopped along the way for the guide to explain a few things to us about the bridge and he took photos at different locations also. The view from up there is absolutely spectacular!!! Right up the top you once again walk across a smaller walkway and he stopped halfway and made us all look down at the traffic… a long way down. Funnily enough though I was never scared or worried about falling or being so far up…. 134 metres above sea level.
Walking down of course was a little easier and before we knew it the 3 hours were gone and we were back down to earth.. Getting out of all the gear and picking up our photos took another half hour and we were quite tired and hungry by then!
Of course there was a pub just a couple of doors down so we popped in for one drink and then off to get some food.
I would encourage everyone to do this at some time, it is an awesome experience and even though it is a little pricey it’s worth every dollar!
- comments
Mum SO good to read your blogs again Larnie. I'd love to be able to see Sydney again, one last time! Glad you enjoyed the Bridge climb. As you say, doesn't matter where one lives you never get to go sightseeing in your own patch ! Well, not until you have visitors to take around. ' concerned about your heading off on your cruise..into a cyclone. Glad to hear the route has been changed. Luv you, x.
Debra Mmmm.... Bridge climb?..... sooner you than me. I'd definitely be one of the ones turned off by the beginning part.... Gwendols and I nearly died of fright one time climbing the stairs inside the pylons as you could see through the steps down to the bottom .... the pair of us carried on quite the treat so no can't see me getting up close and personal with the span itself!