Guest post: Climbing the Bridge

One of the activities that has been on my bucket list is climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge.  Getting to Australia certainly made it easier to accomplish.  (Although until the Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman movie came out I am not sure I ever had a bucket list.)  We made reservations a week or two ago, although I have taken poetic license using the term we.  Thank you Michelle!!! 

The weather here in Sydney has left something to be desired.  That something that is missing is the big yellow thing in the sky of the northern hemisphere that is called the sun.  Since I arrived it has been cool, windy, cloudy and drizzly.   Our bridge climb was scheduled for twilight Sunday so we would be on top of the bridge both in daylight and at night when the city was all lit up. We awoke on Sunday and the drizzle had been replaced by rain.  We both wondered if the bridge climb would be spoiled or cancelled by the weather.  During the day we wandered over to the Glebe Street fair (not Glee.) Nice street and most of the time the rain abated.  Later in the afternoon we made our way to the Australian Museum of Contemporary Art.  The drawing card was the new Yoko Ono exhibition, “Stop the War.”:  Very interesting and moving.  The exhibit was virtually all in black and white.  Image a chess board only in white and with the pieces on both sides only in white.  Which bishop is mine?  Am I on the right square?

 At the appointed time, we made our way to the Bridge Climb entrance.  Our group of climbers was about 11 people.  About half Australian and half from the U.S. including a couple from Boston where the wife was the climber and the husband stayed with his feet firmly planted on the ground. (Fear of heights he claimed) We dressed in what I can only describe as space suits.  They were full length cloth suits in blue and gray that zipped from the back and had attachments and clips everywhere.  A clip for the gloves, one for the hat: another for the radio (communication not entertainment): clips for glasses, one for a wiping cloth (handkerchief).  Oh, and yes a harness to clip each climber to the bridge.  There was a practice area where we learned to climb stairs and ladders while keeping 3 points connected at all times. (2 hands and a foot or 2 feet and one hand.)  All this as you were tethered to the bridge.

Soon we were ready for the climb.  Climb is a misnomer.  Mostly there are steps, stairs and a couple of ladders.  You often were ducking under low hanging beams or stepping over a girder.  Remember, this is a bridge.  After about 30 minutes of “climbing,” we found ourselves on the exterior of the curved arch of the bridge overlooking the harbor and the city of Sydney.  Spectacular view even though it was dusk and overcast.  The leader kept up a running commentary through the radio system, although sometimes she would warn us of a low hanging beam when we were 50 yards behind.  Every now and again we would stop to catch our breath, let stragglers catch up, take photos (they took all photos, we were not allowed to have cameras on the climb) and just admire the beauty of the city.  Viewing the Opera House lit up a night from a height of 140 meters is a vision I will never forget.

And then the rains came.  Here we are atop the longest arch bridge in the world and it starts raining.  No shelter, no umbrella, just a steady downpour.  If we look like drowned birds in some of the photos, you know why.  You climb up one arch cross over the bridge to the other arch and then climb back down.  From start to finish the climbing takes about 2 hours.  OK climbing takes 1 ½ hours and photos take the other 30 minutes.

One bucket list item down, many more to go.

"Cold"

I'd planned on going on an adventure tonight, or at least leaving my apartment to get some dinner. Then at some point this evening a wind storm started. I'm not quite sure when it started, and it's beautiful to watch the treetops sway, but it's also pretty loud and it's making my room quite cold. It's killing my motivation a bit to get outside, so I made some tea instead and decided to write this. Sadly, "cold" here is 59 degrees F. I think my blood thinned somewhere along the way.

Up until whenever this started, today was beautiful. I was up for a 7 am call with DC, and surprised the person on the other end of the phone by letting him know it was already Thursday here.

How cold is it in India?

Really cold.

I promised this entry would be about bucket showers, and it will be, but first you need some background on the weather and lifestyle here.

Stereotypically, India is always hot. Sometimes wet, sometimes now, but always hot. This is untrue.

Northern India gets cold. It's so cold that the schools have their three month break in the winter, while schools in the south have the break in the summer.

It isn't absolutely freezing all the time. When the sun comes out during the day it warms up, and it feels nice to be out in the sunshine, especially when the clouds burn off and you can see the mountains.

The buildings don't have heat. Going inside during the daytime is often colder than standing outside. You can never go inside to warm up.

Instead, everyone wears a base layer of long underwear that stays on all the time. Tibetan women sometimes wear three pairs of long underwear underneath their skirts. Then you wear between three and five layers on top. Because the classrooms aren't heated, I sit in class with a scarf and a hat and a blanket. Some people wear gloves. In one classroom you must remove your shoes, so we bring slippers or extra socks.

The dorms built out of concrete, and also don't have heat, so you sleep in your base layer (of course) and pajamas on top. I sleep in my sleeping bag, under a huge comforter. I made the mistake last night of touching the wall in my sleep. The iciness woke me up.

I should also mention that the dorms are completely open. We have a cats living under the first floor stairs, dogs and monkeys wander the halls at all times, and one day we had to chase out goats. Living here is a trip.

In addition to living without heat, solar energy heats the water in the dorms. Since it only gets warm when the sun shines, the water is
Always cold at night and sometimes doesn't work in the morning because the pipes freeze overnight.

Knowing all this, none of us expected much from the solar heated water. Yesterday, Julia and I decided to have a shower party after lunch to take advantage of the sun's maximum potential (using our trusty buckets, of course, I should probably throw in a picture of my bucket soon. We're thinking about decorating them).

We filled our buckets, and noted the steam rising from the water. Julia decided that it probably came from the difference between air and water temperature, which was a fair guess, so we proceeded.

Incorrect! To our delighted surprise, the water was deliciously hot. Hot enough to scald us and we ended up mixing it with cold water from the shower tap.

Using our smaller pails (also vital) to pour water over our heads, we created salon hair washing conditions crouched over buckets in concrete showers in the middle of northern India. Who would have thunk?

When we reported our findings at dinner, even the boys got excited at the prospect of hot water. That's when you know it's really cold.

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