I did it! The bridge climb cost me a fortune, but it's definately worth it. It's one of those things that you'll do it once and that's it.
The walk started with 10 of us sitting in the waiting room. After a brief chat with the couple that sat next to me - Mr. and Mrs. Algeria (They are from Algeria, I can't remember their names), we were called into a room where we had to sign a declaration that we die at our own risk (not in those words) and did our alcohol breath test. All clear! We were then moved into another room where we all stood in a circle and handed our bridge climb jump suits. While we were waiting, we each had to say where we're from and why we are doing this climb.
Moving along, the next station is where we change into our suits (we were not allow to wear any long pants under the suit, only shorts if you have them on, or down to your underwear, and they assured us the suit is clean and freshly pressed). Next, moving along, we locked our things in a locker and walked through a metal detector (yours truly for some reason did not pass the beep test and had to do a second one, no i did not have anything harmful on me, must have been my ring). All accessories except rings must be taken off.
Here is the interesting bit, each of us were moved into this section that looks like a horse stable, we each were given a workman lookalike belt. The belt had so many hooks that it's confusing! we each were than hooked on a rain coat, fleece jacket, sunny clip, hat clip, a tractor ball to hook on the safety line as we walk on the bridge and a hanky, just in case the view was so beautiful that we start crying. After that, i swear i weight a few tons heavier!
We were then given a trial run of climbing up the stairs, the cat walk and how to put on and take off the tractor ball from the safety line. Lastly, we were fitted with a radio headset so we could hear our leader, with a pat on the back, off we go!
The view was magnificant! It was cold and windy, but my goodness I was so thrown away with the view! The climb itself was challenging when we had to climb up 4 sets of a 80 deg stairs. I hit my knee on it so many times that i went numb at one stage. It was probably the most challenging part of the whole walk. After that, Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh it was a breeze.
I'll have to take a shot of the group photo that i was given and post it here. At the end of the walk, we all gave each other a hug, a clap and a quick YIPeee - we did it! The group I had was fun. A mix of old and young people from all over the world. Mr. and Mrs Algeria were here with the FINA team, they were in the panel for drug testing. Both lawyers and speak only French and little English, it was fun trying to communicate with them. They were lovely people, telling me about their trips around the world as laywers living in Algeria and Paris. What a life! And the family from Bristol?! What a laugh! Their kid kept asking whether we were going to fall off the railings. We had to yell at him "stop saying that!" and he just would not stop!
So did I have fun? HEAPS! If you're thinking of doing it, please do. It's a pinch to your pocket if you're as poor as me, but definately worth it.
xoxo,
L.
