SYdney: Climbing the Bridge

Okay, we didn’t really get to do the bridge climb.  For the official climb you have to be at least 10 years old, which is only half of us.  Plus, it’s pricey.  I hope all the kids will do it one day, and Sean and I would love to also, so hopefully we’ll all get the chance on some future trip.

Instead we climbed to the Pylon Lookout, which was the perfect way for us to experience the Sydney Harbour Bridge as a family.  There are 200 stairs with a 360 degree view at the top, and exhibits along the way to tell you about the history of the bridge.

We did a lot of walking to get there.  We took the train into town, had a look at the opera house, then walked to the bridge, stopping on the way for some lunch.  It’s really not all that much walking, but when you’ve got hungry kids and you are trying to keep track of them on busy city streets, it’s stressful and that makes it seem longer!

Lots of info on the bridge before you get to the top.  It opened in 1932 and took eight years to build.  They built the north and south half a the same time and joined them in the middle.  It took eight days to join the two halves of the bridge.  I bet there were a lot of people holding their breath that week!

At the time the bridge opened it was nearly the longest steel arch bridge, missing out by just 63cm.  It’s now number six on the list.

This story made me laugh, it’s not something I’ve heard before.

We finally made it to the top level and had our first glimpse from the top.  More info awaited us before we made it outside.

The view from the top! See the train crossing the bridge?  It’s on the very right.  Our train-obsessed toddler was so thrilled to see multiple trains while we were up there.  ‘Tain, tain!’ He would have happily stayed there all day and watched the trains cross the bridge.  When we later rode the ferry he was ecstatic to see the train crossing the bridge again, from a view under the bridge.

Looking back into Circular Quay.  See all the ferries?  And the docks? 

Looking toward the bridge.  (Um, obviously.)  On the ledges there were lines which were guides to point out local landmarks and buildings. 

See the bridge climbers?  All in blue.  They go up in groups, pausing along the way to learn about the history of the bridge from their guide.  We saw at least a dozen groups start their climb.  At more than $250 per adult and dozens of group per day, I imagine they are raking it in.  You can even get married on the bridge if you’re so inclined (pun intended.)

A view of the opera house.  We’d been over there earlier that morning, so we pointed out to the kids how far we’d walked.  We could even see the building where we’d had lunch.  This harbour is very busy, so many boats headed in different directions.

We were there long enough that the kids started to get bored.  Time for one last look!

This was the limit of the safety equipment for the men who built the bridge.  Sixteen people died during construction, but only two of those deaths were from falls.

One last room with an exhibit and some gorgeous stained glass windows.  There was a video showing scenes from the opening of the bridge.  How neat it must have been to have the bridge open after all the years of debate followed by all the years of construction!

Then we forced the kids to walk all the way across the bridge where we caught the train on the other side. I’m certain they don’t get how iconic this bridge is.  Little TurboBug climbed every one of those 200 steps inside the pylon on his own.  That’s a lot of steps, so he got to hitch a ride across the bridge.

Most of the day had been a bit overcast, but at one point I glance back toward the opera house and the sun had come out which made for a pretty picture.

Even prettier with a bit of filtering. (I think so, anyway, I love the colour of the sky!)

So glad we did this!  It was a great way to ‘experience’ the bridge without doing the climb.  Plus we got to see the opera house and Circular Quay, and walk through the streets a bit.  And we survived public transportation in Sydney with four kids!  You can imagine we were all exhausted by the end of the day. Fortunately we were staying at a caravan park in Sydney which is close to a train station, so it was an easy journey home to our caravan.

Up & Running

A few weeks ago there was a glitch with the software I use to create blog posts.  They finally fixed it, so I can blog again!  I had some posts from Tasmania waiting to publish so I’ve done that, but I think to have any hope of keeping this blog at all current I’m going to have to skip ahead.  Hopefully I can go back and blog about some of these places later.

At the moment we are in New South Wales, right near the Queensland border.  We’ve finally found some sunny weather and are enjoying the beach again!  Right now I’m listening to the waves.  It’s lovely.  :)

Bruny Island: The Neck

The north and south ends of Bruny Island come together in a spectacular isthmus.  A rather large set of steps awaits any who want to climb up and see the stunning view.

We counted on the way back down and there were over two hundred steps. 

Look how narrow this strip of land is.  Ocean on one side…

And ocean on the other.  It really feels like a unique spot.

There’s a memorial to Truganini, and a nearby sign that tells her story.  She was a Tasmanian Aborigine.  Her story is so sad that I can’t bear to think about it.

The view from the top is stunning.  We’re wearing hats because it was so. incredibly. windy.

Funny faces.  TurboBug, you’re really going to have to learn this.  We can’t have you smiling so cutely while we all make horrendous faces.

Absolutely breathtaking views.  Wait up, TurboBug!  That’s a lot of steps to conquer on your own.

Look at the difference in the colour of the water on either side.  We passed by here during low tide and the stretch of water on the right side was more like a series of sand and puddles.

The ocean takes on such beautiful colours.  I love seeing how different it can look.

Part way down we realised TurboBug’s hat had flown away.  We (meaning Dad) had to jump the fence to retrieve it.

Breathtaking.  Did I say that already?

We’d heard that this was a great point for spotting penguins, so our first night we came up for a look.  We weren’t the only ones!  They’ve erected this platform so that you won’t disturb the penguins or other shorebirds in the area, since they nest in the bush.  At the bottom there is a gate that you can use to access the beach during the day.  We covered our torches with red so as not to hurt their eyes.  We only managed to spot a handful of them.  It’s a fun thing to do, even if we did get rained on a bit!

We did see a set of these…young siblings waiting for mum to come back with some food!

 

Since there hadn’t been many penguins we didn’t try again the next night.  We had seen some in Bicheno, and it probably won’t be our last time during our trip around Australia that we’ll have the opportunity to go penguin watching.  Hopefully we’ll fare better next time!

Captain Cook Monuments

All over Australia we are seeing references to Captain Cook.  He’s pretty important in Australia’s history in terms of discovery, being an explorer and all.  ;) Growing up I was always told that he is an ancestor of my father’s family, so the name always catches my eye.  There were a couple of monuments on Bruny Island with his name, so we stopped for a look.     

This one made us laugh because it just seemed so odd.  Just a tall tower of bricks.  The bench next to it was very nice, however!

Another one further down the road attempts to make clear who was there first!

I’m sure we will be seeing more Captain Cook monuments in our future!