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Circular Quay is the central point for Sydney's transport systems, located right behind the Opera House

A group of climbers descending the bridge, with North Sydney in the background

Erin's Journal for 1/29 to 1/30/03 New South Wales

Today we wanted to see the city. We took a bus into town from Whale Beach, as Glenn's previous experience in Sydney told him that streets there were confusing, and parking nearly impossible. The bus ride took about 90 minutes, and our first task upon arrival was to find the Bridge Climb office for tomorrow morning. We easily found this, and explored the surrounding neighborhood, the Rocks. The buildings here were originally home to the seedier side of society in Sydney, but has lately turned into a very trendy, high-rent district. It's prime location near the south end of the Harbor Bridge and right by Circular Quay (where all the ferries arrive and depart) make it high on the real estate costs, but the buildings were able to be protected for their historical value, so it retains an old world charm.

We decided to grab lunch next before hitting a ferry for a more water-based view of this harborside city. We ended up at McDonalds (it's quick!), and then the Watson's Bay ferry. This is one of the further bays, from which you can see Manly across the harbor and which has an array of nice beaches and a lighthouse. We disembarked there, then walked around the headland to find the lighthouse. On the way, we stumbled upon one of the city's nude beaches, Lady Bay. There were mostly men enjoying the freedom from clothing, so Glenn didn't insist that we stay long. :)
The lighthouse was pretty, but we had to hurry back to the ferry or miss our chance at other ferries (scheduling conflicts). So we ended up back at Circular Quay and took the opportunity to walk around the impressive Sydney Opera house. It's a fantastic building! We even stopped in the huge garden next door to read and soak up the atmosphere a bit. We'd planned to take a ferry out to Manly again, then take one of the later ones back to town so we could capture the evening lights, but I wasn't looking forward to that 90 minute bus ride home in the dark!

Instead, we took the metro train to the central bus station, where we were able to scout out the Sydney Central YHA. We'd be staying there Friday night, when we attended the opening night of Riverdance for a rare dress-up occasion! We grabbed dinner in the Market City shopping center in Chinatown, then grabbed the bus back to Whale Beach. We arrived home in the dark, after all, but were able to be in bed by 10:30 pm. Those lorikeets don't care if you've gotten to bed late or not - they are the built-in alarm clocks of the house!

1-30-03

Today was our much-anticipated Bridge Climb. It's an expensive thing for tourists to do, and about a 3 to 4 hour time commitment, so we didn't plan much else for the day. It was hot, so we dressed as lightly as possible and ran down to catch the early bus into town. Unfortunately, this particular one took a different route, so the stop we were waiting at was perfectly positioned for us to see it turn the corner next to us and take off without us! Ugh! Perfect, with the one day we need to be somewhere at a specific time, we miss the bus. There was another, but it would get us there at precisely the time we needed to be checking into the Bridge Climb office. Oh well, we made the call to their office and warned them we'd be a little late, and caught the next bus.

It took forever to get into town, and we arrived at the time our group was supposed to be leaving. But we made it just in time after all, and did the paperwork, breathalyzer test, and changing into the official climber suits with the rest of the group. We were briefed on our harnesses, then took a little practice climb inside the office. This was to make sure that none of us would freak out at 10 meters high, or get stuck on the vertical ladders up or down. We all made it, and headed off with our radio earpieces, listening to our group leader giving us some background on the bridge.
We climbed up inside one of the huge granite pylons, which our guide informed us don't actually take any of the bridge's weight! It was for show! The things engineers have to do to make people feel safe - even by lying to us!!! Oh well, it was still interesting. The only thing that bothered me on the whole trip was how slow it was. We'd finally gotten out to the bridge itself, and were going up these shallow steps, looking down at the harbor, the opera house, traffic lanes, and the great views of the city itself. We'd go maybe 15 steps, then stop and look for 10 minutes. Then we'd move another 12 steps, and stop again! There were about 5 groups ahead of us all the way up, stopping to take photos at the top, etc. This slowed us down so much, and we were all hot and bothered by the time we got to the top. I no longer cared about the view, and was starting to feel sick and dehydrated! I just wanted to get on with it, damnit! But the views were really great, in reality. We even ended up buying a couple of the cheesy pictures they took of us at the top, but wouldn't go on the climb again if we had the chance.

After that I was hot and hungry, so we stopped nearby for a pizza and coke before doing our other stop of the day, climbing to the pedestrian walk of the bridge and going up to the top of the pylon for more views. This time, we could bring our own cameras, and the views were every bit as good, we thought. That's the thing we'd recommend for others wanting the view without paying the $145 Australian to climb the bridge.
Afterward, I was pretty beat and wanted to head back to Whale Beach, so we found the bus and rode the 90 minutes back out there. We joined Pauline and Graham downstairs for dinner with their son Nigel, his girlfriend, and her son. It was a great meal and the company was very pleasant, so we called it a good day!