Metal, water & electricity

We totally forgot to post about our adventure on the bridge. Last week we had booked to do the Bridge Climb. Some of you may have seen this on travel shows, but for those who haven't, basically you climb the right hand edge of the Sydney Harbour Bridge to the summit, across the middle and then back down the left hand edge of the same side. The morning started well as Tash received news of her exam results and had passed them all, so once she gets her project done she'll be a proper Accounts Technician (check her bad, invincible ass). We were both quite nervous about the afternoon fun of the Bridge climb, especially as when in Paris we both coped out of going up to even the first stage of the Eiffel Tower, which is only 57m up. The top of the Harbour Bridge is 134m high. However, the sun was beating down as we had our extensive safety briefing (which included a breathalyser - so no chance of any Dutch courage) and a chance of catching the sunset coming in across the harbour was on the cards.

The first section was negotiating several walkways running along the underside of the bridge, up to the point where the arch starts. I was sh*tting it along these parts. These were the kind of walkways used in every disaster movie when there's a close up of a rivet slowly rattling loose and plunging silently into the ocean/chasm/sky/ether. Next it was 4, nearly vertical ladders that pop up between the traffic lanes of the bridge, so you can get above it to the base of the archs. Tasha was now sh*tting it. At this point it started to rain. Only a bit of good old drizzle (the kind of fine rain that soaks you through) so the rain shells came on but we weren't disheartened as we'd heard the view of the rain clouds sweeping out to the ocean can be quite fantastic. Once on the main arch of the bridge it all felt a lot safer and easier going on the legs, so we trooped on to within about 10m of the summit, when a huge bolt of lightning was seen to the west of the bay. Now everybody was sh*tting it.

The rest all happened quite quickly, really. Everybody was channelled into some safe areas under the main archs, surrounded by concrete but also, worryingly, the steel joints of the structure. It was decided that it was unsafe to continue with the threat of lightning hitting the bridge and also that the temperature had dropped so much it was now hailing, so we headed back to base. The storm moved across the harbour at a rapid rate and by the time we had got out of our gear the dusky sun was back out and the harbour looked peachy.

We did however learn a cool story about Paul Hogan. He used to be a painter on the bridge and one day there was a geezer up there trying to commit suicide. So Hogan simply walked over and started talking to him. The news got wind of it and one of the TV networks were so impressed by the way Hogan had talked the suicidal man down, they offered him a show. This scene was later paid homage to in Crocodile Dundee II.