The climb itself is a lot less strenuous than I thought it would be. The only hard part was the straight-up and -down ladders. The bridge itself has such a gradual rise, you barely notice that you are climbing. Also, because of the many photo opportunities along the way, you have plenty of time to catch your breath along the way.

You have headphones on the whole time, and the guide speaks to you through these. On our particular tour, we had a woman who has deaf. The guide was very understanding and allowed time for her husband to sign to her.

The views were spectacular, and I have a great picture of my husband and I with the Sydney Opera House in the background. You get one complimentary group photo with your climb price. The price itself is a bit steep. It was close to $200 per person in Australian dollars, but when will you ever get the chance to climb on a bridge again… unless that is your job.

When marvelling at the view of the bridge during the day, it is only then that you pick out the detail on the bridge. Which is also when you see what might be little vertical prongs sticking up except these prongs are in fact moving. These are actually people scaling the bridge to reach its summit 134 metres above sea level. It didn't take long for the urge to climb the bridge to get to me!

Finding myself at the counter of the BRIDGECLIMB office it wasn't long before my face was doing a good impression of a rabbit in headlights as within half an hour of arriving I was being suited an booted for 'the climb of my life' as promised by the logo for BRIDGECLIMB! For $AUS150 we would be given a 3 hour experience the start of which was to sign away any liability, always a reassuring part to any activity and then breathalysed to see if in fact we were drunk out of our minds!

Having passed all the insanity checks, we, a group of 12 ranging in ages from 10 to 60, were moved to the changing area where we were supplied with a grey jumpsuit. We were then issued a headset so the climb guide, Richard, could talk to us all the way up the metal frame.

The start of the climb was beneath the thunderous traffic and you had to manoeuvre yourself around bits of yellow foam padding and onto narrow wooden pathways. At this stage my attention was firmly focused on the placing of one foot in front of the other and so I hoped that the view wasn't the best at this point. Having completed the first bit of the assault course we then had the next phase, which was to one by one scale the narrow metal stairs which lead you through the lanes of traffic.

After a series of about four staircases I reached the start of the arch. Surprisingly this was neither nerve-racking or terrifying instead it was beautiful, the view on the right-hand side incorporated the angular curves of the Opera House at the entrance to the steady ferry flow in Circular Quay and I could see far over to the entrance of the Harbour.

I was now one of those grey vertical prongs reaching the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and while I didn't want to slow the progress of those behind me the view was captivating.

While I appreciated the view at the time the best part is when you are finally on safe ground and sitting in a cafe looking at the Bridge and you're able to say "I climbed that!!"

It was interesting to see the complete lack of safety equipment for bridge workers given the heights that they were working. Photos and models depict workers doing their job with no safety harnesses, hard hats or other protective clothing. Amazingly, only 16 workers died during the bridge building and only two of these were in falls from the bridge. They were real men in those days!

This is the bargain in Sydney sight-seeing! Spectacular views mixed with a bit of historical information. One not to be missed, particularly by those who baulk at the $200+ that the Bridge Climb Company wants!

Twilight is the best time to climb. You get the daylight views, see the sunset, and catch the city lights. All from the unique viewpoint of the Sydney Harbour Bridge Arch!

The climb itself is not too strenuous and there are plenty of stops for photographs along the way. Unfortunately these stops are for the climb guide to take photos and there were no opportunities for the paying guests to take their own photos. This was to prevent climbers dropping their cameras onto cars and people below, but also allowed them to sell digital images to climbers. (NOT CHEAP!!) They do provide a free pass to the pylon where there are plenty of opportunities to take photos of the view from the bridge. The views are just not quite as good!