Just climbing a bridge

So this was a day we were looking forward to. Today we get to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge. How cool is
that? We got the the Climb HQ early and checked in, filled out the health and safety stuff and looked at the
tat that these places always sell. Ali got all flustered buying a coffee as they have no concept of an Americano
over here. She had to order a 'Long Black' and ask them to put milk in it which apparently must be like burning
the Aussie flag or something equally offensive as they didn't seem to like you ordering it! We chatted to a
guy on the same climb as us with his young son who was a big Liverpool fan ever since Craig Thompson (remember
him?) played for them and also because Harry Kewell had played for them as well. He was very impressed when I
told him I'd been to Anfield that year but less impressed that it was to watch Argyle.

We went into our briefing and got dressed up in our fetching boiler suits complete with special tool belt and
attachments. We had to have a practice climb of a ladder to prove that we could actually do it and then it was
off into a tunnel, clip onto the safety line and out onto the bridge. The first bit you just walk out under the
bridge before reaching the ladders which take you up onto the actual arch. It's quite noisy with the 8 lanes of
traffic and the trains going across but it is a pretty impressive piece of engineering.

When we got up onto the arch we realised how windy it was but it wasn't too cold and the view was just breath taking. Not just the city and the harbour but the suburbs and Blue Mountains further out. We spent about an hour on the bridge and had the usual photos taken at the top, you can't take your own in case you drop anything onto the traffic below.

Next we ventured back into the harbour are to eat lunch in the sun and admire the view before a little walk around the Opera house and into the Royal Botanic Gardens for a wander. As expected Emily was less keen on the walking bit and so we didn't really get to see all the gardens and headed back to the hotel where a swim and a jacuzzi was much more appealing to her. On the way she somehow managed to get something in her eye which we had to go to an optometrist to get removed. A quick way to spend $60 but for the best as it was really bothering her and could have turned into something nasty.

Emily loved the pool and did 60 lengths without me even needing to badger her to do. I did have to 'encourage' her to do a few crawl and not all breast stroke but she was OK with that. There was a creepy dude who propositioned a Kiwi lady in the pool which was unfortunate but on talking to her she gave us some good ideas of things to do at Ayres Rock later in the trip.