Sailing From Sydney

Mar. 2, 2020:

Jim and I flew back into Sydney on Friday afternoon (Feb. 28^th), and had drinks on the 35th floor of our hotel overlooking Sydney Harbour. We even saw a sister Regent ship, the Navigator, sailing out under the Harbour Bridge.

The Navigator going under the Harbour Bridge.

Jim and I spent the day Saturday (Feb. 29^th) just wandering around Sydney. We walked through “Chinatown” up into the Broadway neighborhood to visit a mall with an Apple store. Then we returned to “the Rocks” area near the Circular Quay and wandered through the street fair they have every Saturday and Sunday. We capped it off with a fantastic dinner at a nearby restaurant called 6 Head 1788 (referring to the six head of cattle imported into Sydney in 1788 which have now become the backbone of the world-famous Australian beef industry).

An ibis in the park

After a leisurely breakfast yesterday, Jim and I boarded our home for the next two months, Regent’s Seven Seas Mariner.  Many of our friends and family have openly said we are nuts, but Jim and I are still optimistic that we will still get to visit many interesting stops along the way, including some major bucket list destinations. As I wrote earlier (you can chart the destination changes in this earlier post: https://vayacongringos.wordpress.com/2020/02/22/departing-into-the-unknown/), the itinerary for this leg of the journey has changed from a Sydney to Singapore routing to a Sydney to Perth routing with many stops along Australia’s southern coast.  After a great evening back aboard the ship, Jim and I took a shuttle back into the Darling harbor area, and then walked over to the Circular Quay area, where we have a great adventure planned.

View out our hotel window across to White Harbour, where you can see our ship, the Mariner.

Today, we are going to do the Bridgeclimb, which involves a very technical climb up the highest point on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We’ve really lucked out today, as the weather is very clear (and warm), so we should have terrific views from the top of the bridge.

Harbour Bridge

Facts about the Bridge.

There are three main routes to climb the bridge, but only two of them actually go to the top. Jim, naturally, has chosen the longest climb, about which I’m beginning to have doubts as the heat just keeps rising.  However, as we get into it, I realize that you don’t spend the entire time climbing on the iron bridge. Instead, at least the first 45 minutes are spent garbing up for the climb. You are not allowed to carry anything with you which can fall off, because any item falling from these heights would either kill a person or busty a car window. Instead, you are required to strip down to your underwear, and you are provided with a jumpsuit, and a hat, which clips onto your harness. You have to take all watches and jewelry off (except wedding rings), and I even had to take the clips out of my hair. Then you are fitted into your harness, which attaches you to a steel cable for the entire time you are on the bridge. Finally, you are given a headset so you can hear your guide at all times over the wind.  Everything is locked down onto your harness, including your sunglasses (“sunnies”, in the Aussie slang). The climb wasn’t really that bad, but there are a few sets of stirs about the wide of a submarine ladder, so if you have knee issues, this probably isn’t the activity for you. Most of the actual climb goes up a very gradually rising set of metal steps. For those that are afraid of heights, you might feel slightly more comfortable knowing that there is solid metal plating underneath the steps, so you can’t see how high up you are with every step.  The pacing is pretty measured, with lots of stops for the guide to take pictures of each couple. Since you are forbidden to bring your own camera or cellphone on the climb, Jim enticed me into going by buying the whole photo package as part of the deal.

The Queen Elizabeth is moored in Circular Quay.

The views of the Opera House

Im pointing at the Mariner moored in the harbor behind us

The views are absolutely amazing, and you have probably the best views of the opera house in the city!  However, you should take the climb operator’s advice to hydrate yourself liberally and eat before you go, because you are really spending at least 1 ½ hours doing the actual climb. One woman on our tour became dehydrated, and had a medical episode at the very peak of the bridge. Fortunately, there were medical staff positioned at the top, but we did have to maneuver a bit to get our cables undone and moved so we could move past her. We were happy to see that she did recover and was able to get back down off the bridge. I hope you enjoy the views.

Standing at the top!

Later this afternoon once we were back on the ship, the winds really blew up and the skies scudded over for our sail away. But we’re off on another adventure, and our next port of call is Burnie, 
Tasmania!