Click here for other points of view on the climb from TGS student bloggers.

It’s really quite something to see the entire world, or at least the harbor, unfurl before you.

Being suddenly blinded by the sunlight as you emerge from the shielded network of ladders and wires. Having rushing, swirling water underneath you where “Sydney Bridge” gray steel before covered. Wind lapping at your hair; a silent threat. You stagger a bit with surprise in your jumpsuit, your handy-dandy handkerchief and clipped on cap. You check the person in front of you and your harness. Fear: the second reaction to surprise in situations like this one, runs in your veins.

Nightmares are just nightmares.

That’s the only thing that keeps you going as you step upon yet another netted area. The harness isn’t going to fall off, and the netting beneath you isn’t going to give way. My friends at home would have laughed at me. ME, the girl who loved to climb trees, shaking to the tips of my toes!! And so you’re left standing in a centimeter thick floor, holding (or suffocating) the person next to you to keep you from falling. It’s a moment that you can’t really say is terrifying, but you can’t really say it isn’t. You don’t what to think. Your eyes are just a vessel for everything to go through. The first real glimpse of Sydney as the Gods see it, or as I see it. 🙂

Phew! And I thought nothing could be worth all that climbing and spasms of fear!

Yada on the Sydney Harbor Bridge

Sydney Storyboard

The moment was like a release, in a way. It is true that the humans climb uphill in hope to go down. Instead of going down though, I went out from the black and white world of bolts and arches are the building blocks of the bridge, to see another kind of charm. On the way through the Bridge, which started from 50 feet above sea level to almost 200, you get to see the beautiful city from afar, see the people go about their everyday lives, while we watched, unseen, like ninjas! You get to be immersed in the city after this little trip outside the box, walking amidst the cars. Among the arches and bolts were little snippets of the harbor, from the Opera house to the foam following the boats in the clear water. However, when you break the surface, you get to see what you’ve only seen a little of at a time, all at once. The whole of Sydney became a storyboard. The stories of World War two and other history the guide tells you about becomes the plot, and it’s up to you to see with your mind’s eye the story become more. My imagination got away from me…

I’d love to see the whole truth of things, which is one of the things I want to do in Sydney, instead of just little snippets. What started as such a normal day just turned something entirely different.