Bridge Climbers

In 1998 they decided to open the bridge to climbers, and in the first five years, over a million people went over the top (including us - we did it in 2002). The upshot of this is it's impossible to take a photo of the harbour bridge without this little line of ants somewhere in the shot.

The Bridgeclimb is okay but it's incredibly expensive, ranging from about £79 monday to friday up to £176 to climb at dawn (and they love the tourists so much that they put the prices up in December and January). In any case, I think the views are just as good from the Pylon, especially the views of the bridge, because when you're on it, you can't take photos of it, can you? (and the Pylon costs about £4 to get in).

Not that you can take a camera onto the Bridgeclimb, because they're very strict about what you can and can't do, so you can't take your own camera in case you drop it (and because they want to flog you very expensive offical photos) and you have to be breathalysed before they'll even consider strapping you into the jumpsuit (unfortunate choice of word), the jumpsuit being the same colour as the paintwork on the bridge so you don't distract the drivers down below and cause a bingle. In my case, the sight of my arse in a jumpsuit descending a vertical ladder was enough to cause several car bingles, though thankfully nobody looked skywards and the day was saved.

They keep you for over two hours, an hour of which is spent mucking about finding caps that fit and putting on radios and climbing through a mock-up of the safety-harness thingy, so by the time you finally get your hands (or feet) on the bridge, you're about to pass out with the antipation of it all (or was that just me?).

Anyway, here they are, the bridge climbers at 2.30pm this afternoon. The top of the bridge flies the Australian flag alongside the flag of New South Wales. What you can't see is Blinky Bill, the little red flashing light that warns aircraft to steer clear. The real Blinky Bill is a koala character in a very old (and very classic) series of children's stories written by Dorothy Wall. They say no Australian childhood is complete without the adventures of Blinky Bill so I've bought the stories on audio book for Ella, though on balance, I think I prefer the one on the top of the bridge.

A plea to tourists - do the Pylon as well as the bridge. You'll appreciate the bridge much more if you've been in the pylon first.


Nb Car Bingle, n, A car accident (Australian)