If the thought of invading sacred aboriginal space offends you and the idea of climbing a very large rock (Ayers) in the middle of an Australian desert is not exactly your piece of red ochre, there’s a new way to get high in Australia.
Climb to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Within walking distance of most downtown hotels — and requiring nothing more than the fee, reasonable health and a stout pair of sneakers to stop you from slipping as you “feel the steel” — a climb to the top of Sydney’s famous bridge is now on the must list for tourists who want a memorable holiday rush and a new view of one of the world’s great harbors from 430 feet up.
Dressed in a silver “bridgesuit,” linked to others with a walkie-talkie and connected safely to the big “coathanger” with a high-tech harness, you’ll be guided 10 at a time across catwalks, ladders and up 1,300 stairs to the top and back again. There in the sun and the bracing, ozone-filled air, you’ll be among the first to sweat a new Oz opportunity that is attracting close to 1,000 people a day to an adventure that’s less than a bungee jump and a lot more than another day of shopping for “Toward 2000” souvenirs or “gettin’ y’pitcher took” in front of the Opera House.
BridgeClimb started business in October 1998, the brainchild of a Sydney Harbour Bridge nut named Paul Cave, who has been in love with the unique piece of architectural engineering since it opened in 1932. Now backed by a corporation, and a lease to make the venture profitable, BridgeClimb is one more fun thing to do on your next trip to amazing Australia.
If you’re 12 years of age or older — at this writing, a 92-year-old woman has been the most senior — you’re welcome to join a climb any day of the year, in all kinds of weather except electrical storms (nothing like being on an all-steel structure in the middle of one of those!).
How does the climb work? All you have to do is call for a reservation and show up 15 minutes before your scheduled departure at BridgeClimb headquarters, built right into the bridge’s city-side foundations on Cumberland Street.
There you’ll pay your fee (about $65 U.S., midweek; about $79, weekends), get suited up, watch a video, pass a breath test to make sure your blood alcohol level is less than .05 percent and check your camera — and anything else that may fall from the top onto the six lanes of heavy traffic below. (No photos may sound like a money-making gimmick, but falling objects are dangerous, and included in the fee is a digital picture that BridgeClimb takes of you and your group at the top. Enlargements and multiple copies are extra.)
Additionally, before you begin (and once you’ve committed there are no refunds), you’ll be shown how your harness works, climb some demo ladders — and be asked to sign a waiver in case anything goes wrong! So far, nothing has.
Before you start climbing the arch proper — climbs leave 10 minutes apart from 8 a.m. until sunset — you walk from BridgeClimb headquarters to the start of the span and scoot up a 50-foot ladder, just like Paul Hogan used to do when he spent part of his storied career as a Sydney bridge painter. From there, you’ll go up the east side of the arch, cross the traffic on a dizzying catwalk at the top, then come down the west side more or less to your point of departure.
If you chicken out during the climb, and some do, roving guides will help you down. Just close your eyes and hang on.
There’s no doubt that while the climb may sound gimmicky, it offers a truly spectacular view of Sydney, its skyscrapers, the Opera House, the Pacific beyond the Heads, the traffic in the harbor — and exercise to boot. It’s also a great warmup for a good lunch, because for much of the climb, you’ll catch the drift of heady aromas from hundreds of restaurants in Sydney’s Rocks district, way down there below you.
Sydney Bridge ain’t Everest, or even Ayers Rock. But just for a lark, on your next visit Down Under, it could be a bonzer break, mate.
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For bookings or information, contact BridgeClimb at 5 Cumberland St. Sydney, NSW, Australia 2000 (61-2-9252-0077; fax 61-2-9240-1122; e-mail admin@bridgeclimb.com; www.bridgeclimb.com).
