I climbed Sydney Harbour Bridge and I liked it--that sounded like a pop song. Sorry, Katy Perry. Anyway, I really did plan to, even before I embarked on the trip to Australia. But the thing was, on the days leading up to the departure something earth shaking happened in my life, one that we don't ever wish even on our worst enemies. And so my frame of mind experienced a sudden shift. Instead of climbing bridges, I was actually burning some. My energies were focused on my internal life: thoughts, emotions, expectations, future plans, and climbing that bridge was suddenly no longer an urgent need.
After several days in Sydney of mulling my life over and having some moments of clarity albeit very few, I was able to get my head out of the ground, ostrich style, pardon the pun. I had been contemplating the famous words of the wise regarding the matter of infidelity and what one actually does when confronted by it in the face. Many have said, "Fight back," others have said, "Get even," Ivana Trump said, "Get everything," and still, there are some who say, "Get your vengeance, demand justice, or spend all his money." What do I think? I think if one has a run in with infidelity, he should run the other way as fast as he possibly can.
Anyway, after much encouragement and prodding from Kitty, our resident daredevil, who has skydived in Sydney and cliff dived in Corfu, backpacked across the Outback, and gone camping with Hell's Angels in England, I found the necessary courage to go do it.
I woke up nervous that morning; okay, freaking out would be the more earnest statement. It's not everyday that I climb bridges 134 meters high. Kitty drove me there and like a reluctant toddler off to the first day of Kindergarten, I stood by the curb waving goodbye long after she had driven off.
I entered the office and the wait of 20 minutes felt like the longest in my life. When I was asked to sign a waiver, my hand was shaking so hard I couldn't keep the pen steady. On the line that said "next of kin" I was so tempted to put, Spouse: Brad Pitt. What the heck if it can't be true in life, then in death. Okay, that was a morbid thought.
Anyway, I was with a group of 12 climbers with one able guide who had been doing the climb for 8 years, whew! It took about 40 minutes of briefing and gearing up. They were dead serious about the gear: we had a climbs suit on, which was a jump suit; rain pants over the jump suit; a radio strapped behind us; headset; hanky, bungee-corded to our wrist (the nose runs in high altitudes); a cap also chained to the suit; a head set with hi tech ear phones that lie not on the ear proper but on the cheeks, so that the ears are free to pick up ambient noises from the harbor. It works via sound waves vibrating on the cheek, which is then picked up by the inner ear. When I put it on, I though to myself, hayop! This gadget was courtesy of the US armed forces; why am I not surprised. But then again, these are the same people who can't find Bin Laden. Truly, the universe has a sense of humor.
Carrying on, we had the heavy waist belt to which a bungee cord was attached. It had a slider at the end, which would be clamped on to a steel rope all along the bridge. So when we got there, we had to clamp our sliders on to the rails and proceed like this all throughout. In other words, we could fall, but the cord, which can take 200 tons of tension, would save us from hitting the water. Here's the thing though, they haven't figured out how to recover a dangling body from the height of 134 meters. Duh! It looks deceiving from photos but that bridge is two meters taller than the statue of Liberty, five meters taller than Christ's statue in Brazil, and one meter taller than the tallest pyramid in Gaza, Egypt. Plus, they had the gall to say that a fall from 60 to 80 meters onto water is not lethal; you'll have broken bones and stuff but you'll live. Over 80 meters and you're dead meat. We were 134 meters above the water. (Insert soundtrack of Twilight Zone right here).
But I was already there, had already paid, and I kind of liked the shade of gray that the suit came in, so what the heck. The guide led us on to the bridge and I swear I might as well have been walking on a tightrope. we walked and climbed on steel planks with had grid designs, so it was like walking on a screen plate with the entire harbor below highly visible. All we had to hold on to for dear life were 2 steel rods on either side, about 1 and 1/2 inches in diameter. Can you believe that? I still can't. Anyway we climbed a total of 1,437 steps, maneuvered through platforms, steep inclines, and crevices for a total of 3 hours. It was cool and breezy but I was sweating bullets both because of tension and anxiety and effort expended. But hey, I lived to tell and so will you; I guarantee. You know how they say people that who are into extreme sports do it because they want to get as far from earth as possible because all is not fine and dandy in their lives on terra firma? So true!
No still cameras or video cameras were allowed so we had to buy photos that the guide took at strategic intervals. However, I took photos of the photos of the famous and the even more famous such as Robert De Niro, Matt Damon, Sir Richard Branson, Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban, Cameron Diaz, who did the same climb just so I could brag to you that I have something in common with them. Lame? Yeah, very lame.
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