Bridging The Sydney Harbour

By Author: Leura Zones
Total Articles: 38
Comment this article

Okay, who wouldn't recognize the Sydney skyline with the world famous Sydney harbor and Opera House? Certainly not me anyway. I guess being past the age of backpacking does not mean that I cannot hoist a bag on my shoulders and just walk right into the blue. The difference is that I decided to wander (if you can call it that) to Australia and I didn't exactly wander, I took one of the cheap flights on offer. Why Sydney? Well, when I really wanted the cheapest holidays Sydney topped the list. I really wonder if I have seen many airports busier than the Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport. This airport has more than 35 airlines connecting Sydney with major destinations across the globe on a daily basis. This makes it the busiest airport in all of Australia as well as the country's main gateway. One thing that I'll say for the airport is that it has great patronage from budget airlines offering cheap flights and this just makes it easy for people like me who are slightly possessed with wanderlust. ...
...

As most people who long for the road will know (even if they don't tell you), you have to devise a way to keep your operating costs as low as possible. The fact is also that, by so doing the adventure increases. In line with my scrimpy budget rules, I decided to combine some walking with the city's train service and save myself some money. This meant walking a distance of about 2 km from the international terminal at the airport to Wolli Creek Station. I couldn't help thinking as I walked across the Cooks River that the people that just hopped off the plane and jumped on a train straight to town were missing out on a lot of scenery. The area around the Cooks River is actually very scenic and as my camera clicked, I just drank in the beauty of it. Another funny side to it all is that I must have gotten into town even faster than some people still waiting for a train at the airport because it is so much easier to get a train at the Wolli Creek Station. I guess I should also mention that it is much cheaper!

I'm not even going to regale you with stories of Sydney's beauty; I had the sole mission of climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge and everything else was secondary. The locals call it the ‘coat hanger' and I wondered if anyone would take offence if I called it that. Anyway, the top of this bridge stands about 134 meters above the harbour. It was built in 1932 and its 75th anniversary was marked in 2009. It is certainly a landmark and worthy of being climbed. Thank God I declined that nice beer (actually beers) from the nice guys at the hotel lounge because any alcohol reading in excess of 0.05 would have killed my dreams of climbing the bridge that day. It was three hours of exciting views and almost dizzying heights. I really want to describe what the view is like from that height but it's kind of hard but then, imagine seeing the Sydney skyline from that height. I could see cars zipping across on the roads below. It was simply breathtaking and amazing. Now that I'd had the cheapest holidays Sydney had to offer, I could think of my wanderlust will take me next.