Well Guys

Today you get to relive our last 2 days starting with our pointless visit to Canberra!!!

We boarded the overnight bus from Melbourne on Monday night and headed for Canberra (the nations capital) and arrived at 7am on tuesday morning. We had nowhere to store our bags as promised but managed to find a hotel that would store them for the day for a fee!!!!

The city has no life or pulse and there is no skyline to look at, we did venture over the lake to look at the Parliament Building but that was really it. There were no highlights for either of us apart from the bus out of there at 4pm!!!!

Sorry Canberra.

After a quick 4 hour hop on the Greyhound Bus Service (our chosen form of transport for the next 3 months) we arrived in Sydney at 7.30pm, a full 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Our hostel is right next to the Central Station and we had soon checked in and found the bar for a nightcap!!!!!!

Awoke at 8.30am this morning and took the bull by the horns, I got straight on the telephone and booked us in for the Harbour Bridge climb at lunchtime. So off we set down George Street for the walk through the city to Circular Quay and home to the Harbour bridge and the Opera House. As usual we were a bit early so had a look around the shops at The Rocks before heading up to the bridge climb headquarters for the climb. Once we had registered we were taken into a side room and breathalised before getting fitted out with our climbing suit, and radio plus other bits of safety equipment.

We all had to walk the simulated catwalk climb to get used to the latch system that kept us connected to a small steel wire then it was a short walk down the street before making the ascent. There it was in front of us the underbelly of the most famous bridge in the world. Off we went out onto the catwalk and along there was a nice breeze to keep us cool and before we knew it we had some really steep steps to climb to get to the start of the arch. As you ascended the arch of the bridge you got amazing views of the harbour and the city but also the opera house and in the distance you could see the harbour inlet. The climb was so leisurely and we had picked a near perfect day for it. Once at the summit we were 134m above the harbour and it is probably the best way to see Sydney. Hardly any wind and lovely sunshine. We were on the bridge around 2 1/2 hours and we both loved every minute. Before we knew it we had to descend and head back to the base for de-briefing but a tremendous day and feeling.

We hung around the quay till it got dark and had a drink before heading back to our hostel.

Lots of Love

M & M