Climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge!

SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE CLIMB – 28^TH MAY

The original plan was for Richard, Oliver and Emily to climb the harbour bridge today. Although we all would have loved to have done it  together (taking out a small mortgage in doing so!), Daisy was too young as the minimum age is 10 years old. During the course of the morning, it was decided that I would do it instead! Eek!

We drove into the city this time and drove over the bridge that we would be climbing in a few hours. We had opted to do the night climb which we weren’t sure was a good idea or not!

The whole climb takes about 3 and a half hours, including a small training session and getting kitted out before hand.

The tower

Before the climb though, we had planned to climb the tower at the side of the bridge so that Daisy could do a mini-climb aswell. 


There are 200 steps up here and I was beginning to wonder if this would tire me out before the actual climb! The views from up there were great and we were able to take photos of the bridge and people who were climbing it at that time to see how it would be for us albeit in the dark!

Can you spot people climbing up.....!

The daytime bridge climb just before ours

Emily and I were really nervous but Oliver was fine. We said goodbye to Richard and Daisy who were off to have a few hours fun together.

Firstly after signing the consent forms, we had to form a circle whilst the woman passed us our climb suits. There was a real mix of people, 2 couples from America, one of which was very over the top and annoying! An Indian man on a work trip, 2 girls from Surrey, and an older couple from New Zealand and us! The instructor told us how not to put on our suits back to front which some people do and other stuff! So…we came out of the changing rooms and….guess who had put their suit on back to front?! …..well it wasn’t my kids!

Everything has to be clipped to your suit, down to gloves, earphones and there was even a special handkerchief which was attached to an elastic which went round your wrist!

Time to go, through the tunnel out to the steps where you climb up past the road where it’s really noise with 6 lanes of traffic!

You are attached to the bridge by a special belt which has an elastic which stretches with you as you move along.

As we started out on the bridge, Richard and Daisy had been waiting for ages for us to come out. As it was dark it was really difficult to get a good photo due to the height and darkness.

The instructor can speak to you via earphones and he tells you information about the bridge, how high, how many steps, etc of which I have no memory, I was just concentrating on walking and looking at the spectacular views.

You aren’t able to take a camera up there, but you can buy photos which the instructor takes whilst you are up there. The views were amazing and we were so glad that we had climbed at night. As a special bonus, it was the second night of the light show, so we were able to see the Opera House all lit up. Also on the way down, the Firedance stared so we were able to stand and watch that from up above!

wahoo – we did it!!

I was a bit worried on the way down because all the way along, Ems belt was becoming looser and I had to try to tighten it which was really difficult because of the lack of space.  The instructor had a go at tightening it at one point, but as he was way out in front and we were at the back it was difficult for him to be aware of it. Also, the way your belt is tightened is by a pulley which you stretch away from and then walk towards (as it tightens) before you go out onto the bridge. Just before we came down, Emily could literally step out of her belt, which was attached to the bridge but not her with it if she had have done! There are a series of 4 lots of steps on the way up and back down which you cannot be on those stairs with another person, so I had to hope and pray that she had got down ok, not knowing  for about 5 minutes until I was able to descend the stairs myself. Luckily though, she was fine.

on the way back – back on solid ground!

Once we were down, we had to de-kit ourselves and then walk out down the tunnel to the foyer. Daisy was so pleased to see us when we walked through, it was a lovely welcome back!

There was also supposed to be fireworks in Darling Harbour at 8.30pm, but we ended up being delayed on the bridge, waiting for the former climbing party to exit the bridge so we decided there would be no way we would make it in time so we had to give those a miss.

We then bought some fish and chips and went and sat on the quay, with views of the bridge and opera house!

What a fab day – a great opportunity to have been able to climb Sydney Harbour Bridge with my kids and a great sense of achievement!!