Friday August 22nd, 2025

We are off again. After spending the summer at home we are now on a road trip in Australia. The real reason for our visit is to spend time with our friends Merv and Michelle that we met on the 21/22 Viking work cruise and have stayed in touch with. They were gracious enough to invite us to visit Australia and see their home, meet their family and show us around some of Western Australia. We are very excited to see them again but also to see a part of Australia we have never been to before. We will spend close to a month in Australia and then fly with them to Bali, where they stay for several months a year in a wonderful resort we were lucky enough to visit in March before being kicked off our Oceania cruise.

We are in Australia, Sydney to be exact. We opted to spend 4 nights in Sydney to get adjusted to the time change prior to flying to the west coast of Australia. We left Tallahassee on Wednesday August 20th to begin the long flight to the east coast of Australia. We flew from Tallahassee to Atlanta, Atlanta to Los Angeles and then Los Angeles to Sydney. Luckily all flights were on time and none of our layovers were long. We arrived in Sydney on Friday August 22nd at 7am. The last leg from Los Angeles to Sydney is 15 hours. We watched a few movies and did manage to sleep some. It would be convenient if someone would tow Australia a little bit closer to the US so the flights were not so long.

We had a car and driver waiting for us to take us to our hotel for the next 4 nights. We splurged for the Four Seasons with a harbor view. We did not expect our room to be ready and it was not so we left our bags and did some wandering, more trying to stay awake than anything. We wanted to find the meeting place for Kathy’s Harbor Bridge climb for Saturday morning. The weather in Sydney was cool and rainy and this same weather was predicted for the next 3 days. The bridge climb takes place no matter the weather unless there is lightening.

We got a text at 10:15 that our room was ready so after finding the bridge climb office (10 minutes from hotel) we headed back to hotel. Our bags were in our room on arrival and the view is incredible. We are on the 28th floor.

The cruise ship you see is a Carnival ship that does 3 and 4 day trips out of Sydney.

We took showers and got settled in and then back out to get something to eat. After lunch/dinner (not sure what meal since body clocks are a little confused) we walked around some more and got our bearings. Having been here in 24 on the Viking world cruise and spending 3 days here then we were pretty familiar with the layout.

By 3pm we decided to go back to the room and laid down and fell asleep. We slept until 7pm and then Kathy said we needed to get up and go back out if we were going to eat again. We both decided we were not really hungry and decided to stay in the room and enjoy the view. Plus it was still raining on and off. We channel surfed for a couple of hours and then turned off the lights at 9pm.

Saturday August 23rd

We woke up early and caught the sunrise.

The weather prediction had changed and was now sunshine and high of 67 so Kathy had a great day for the climb. They recommend that you eat and drink prior to the climb so you keep your strength up and are well hydrated. Our friends Linda & Michael had done the climb when we were here on the world cruise so they had filled Kathy in on what to expect. Kathy had opted for the ultimate climb which is 3.5 hours and goes to the top of the bridge, down to the other side and then back across.

Kathy in front of the hotel sign and then checking in and signing her life away at the bridge climb office. We do have to say that everything at the bridge climb was very organized and like clock work. They are checking in groups every 15 minutes and once you check in the orientation is 40 minutes. You are not allowed to carry anything with you and jewelry is at a minimum. You can take sunglasses and small earrings and rings but no watches or bracelets and definitely no cell phones or cameras. They ask if you had anything to eat and if you did not they insist you go to the cafe and get something since you are not allowed to carry anything with you. You also go through a metal detector and breathalyzer. You are given a jump suit and your safety instructions.

Here is Kathy in her gear before she gets all harnessed up and then going through the tunnel to get the last of her gear including a hat and headphones.

I managed to get a few views of her on the lower part of the bridge but once they get higher everyone looks the same and they all have the same jumpsuit and hat and earphones.

Some of you might be asking why I did not go on the bridge climb and the reason is I have a great fear of heights, especially in open places. Even though you are tethered in and connected to the bridge I still would not have done well. Kathy said I would have been fine on 80% but the other 20 would have freaked me out, especially when you are crossing over on a glass walkway that you could see through. She says the other thing that would have driven me crazy was not being able to take photos. They had several photo stops along the way and you could purchase the photos later but Kathy was not interested. She did say the views were amazing and you could see all the way to the Blue Mountains. Kathy was 1 of 9 in her group, the only single and the only one not Australian. Everyone else was celebrating either a birthday or anniversary or graduation.

I walked around a little and then sat and read and tried to catch Kathy combing back down but she arrived back earlier than expected so I missed her group.

We actually took these pictures prior to climbing the bridge but thought that was bad luck to post before she did it.

Kathy did buy a keychain to go on her backpack that says she climbed the bridge. We went to an outside cafe for lunch since it was after 1pm and we were both pretty hungry by then.

Kathy and her “free” hat for climbing the bridge.

After lunch we walked around and made our way to Darling Harbor and we booked whale watching for Monday. While the weather was nice on Saturday they told us that it was very windy and the whale watching boat did not go out that day due to rough seas. We are hoping Monday will be better. We walked all around the harbor and then back to The Rocks area by Circular Quay. We took a few more pictures of the opera house and the Harbor bridge with 3 groups on top.

Amazing how the color of the opera house changes as the sun goes down.

You can see 3 groups on the bridge and Kathy went as high as the flag.

We had a drink at the hotel bar with bar snacks and we were both very impressed by the leaf imprint on her ice cube. It’s the hotel’s symbol & seen quite a lot.

We walked a short distance trying to find something light to eat but not much was open except restaurants and not really interested in a big meal so we headed back to the hotel.

The Opera House at night.