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Another early morning, another rain shower... This is almost becoming predictable!
As I said yesterday, we were booked in to climb 'the bridge' this morning. You can imagine our delight as we looked out the window to be greeted by torrential rain! Not to be deterred by this we set off on the 20 minute walk (as suggested by the largest guy you ever did see who works in our apartments' reception - I reckoned if he could do it in 20 mins, it should take us around 5!) to the start of the bridge climb. 40 minutes later we arrived like drowned rats (20 minutes - you gotta be joking! We walked about 3 miles!) and managed to check in. After a bit of a delay, we were able to join the rest of our group who would accompany us on the climb.
All from Europe, we immediately formed a strong bond based around the fact we we were used to the rubbish weather! Mark from Exeter did however ask us if we knew his friend from Greenock a-la an American. Aye - Davie McNeil. I know him well... NOT!! Do you know my uncle from Gloucester? No? Odd.. I thought you said you were English?!
After meeting our new friends, it was on to the kit room where we put on our lovely jumpsuits and waterproof trousers.. On top of this we added: waterproof jacket, fleece, gloves, beenie hat, skip cap, radio, headset, handkie. Now looking and feeling like pack-horses, we headed to the practice ground where we were shown how to climb stairs and ladders. Very useful! After this, we were ready to hit the steel.
The climb itself was incredible. Climbing to 134 metres was not as hard as you might think as it was done over a 2 hour period and despite the weather being far from great, the visibility was brilliant. Our photo-maniac guide also managed to stop us 4 times for different shots of our climb which did turn out well. As much to do with our good looks as his ability mind you..!
Returning to the climb HQ we de-robed and got changed back into our civvies and made our way to Circular Quay for lunch. The views of the harbour area from here were good too, but there was some horrible white sail-effect building in the way. No idea what that was all about!
After lunch we made our way to Bondi beach due to it not being weather for the zoo.. Some place. We walked the length of the beach and endured an entire spectrum of weather, from sun to cloudy to rain and wind. We even managed to see some crazy fool running the beach in just a pair of speedos despite the temperature being around 10 degrees!
A bus back to the city and further soaking later, we went to see the aquarium located beside our hotel. Great stuff! All Australian fish and animals to be found here, and the shark tunnels and 'real' living reef were both excellent. Never seen sharks that big in a tank before. Pretty sure Louise was expecting them to get into the tunnel with us as she was struggling to handle the speed at which they approached us!
Dinner later and 2 loads of washing done, another day comes to a close. Tomorrow the zoo with a bit of luck. Pics of kangaros and koalas to follow?
L & A
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