Nearly 30km walk in 7.5hrs

It was certainly a long and tiring walk! Yesterday (28th Oct) was the day of the ‘7 bridges walk’ walk event, where it was sort of a charity event cum promotion for healthy living through walking. And oh gosh, walk we certainly did – a whooping 28km walk around the Sydney harbor region and its neighboring suburbs. And coupled with the cursed up-hills that were ever so steep and down slopes, I would have easily walk about 30km! And why did I want to put myself in such a torturous situation?

Part fun and part greed. Yup, you read correctly. Probably to attract people to take part and donate, the organizers had given out vouchers that allow one-for-one entry to the Sydney Aquarium, Sydney Wildlife World, and Sydney Tower. Meaning that 2 adults can tour all these places of interest with the price of one! Whoo hoo! That is simply great… my eyes literarily lit up! Haha… well, because my dearly Limin will be visiting me this Jan 08, and thus with those vouchers, it meant that I can save up quite a lot on all these entrance fees! Mind you, each adult ticket to each of this places of interests can easily hit at least AUD$25! And if we tour all the 3 places, it would mean a savings of about $75! Yup, I’m cheapskate. I had seriously wanted to donate $10 or so at the end of my walk, at the very last station. But, somehow I just forgot about it when I’m at the finishing line! Guess I was simply too happy to finish it, as well as too disappointed with the ‘finishing line’ to remember… argh… don’t feel too good taking all these freebies and not giving some back…

Anyway, I met up with Cat and the NYP gals in Circular Quay, and had breakfast at MacDonald’s – my first MacDonald’s breakfast in the Land of Oz… Nothing spectacularly different between those in Sydney and Singapore. We started off our exodus to the land of foodless at 5 minutes to 9am, after collecting more event passbook (with more vouchers!). And so we started off at the Rocks, and headed towards Pyrmont Bridge as our first bridge of the day. Pretty easy walk still, passing by the Fish market and towards the Darling harbor where Pyrmont Bridge is. Took a photo and get our event passbook stamped, and off we go to our second bridge – ANZAC Bridge.

Thereafter we crossed the Iron Cove Bridge, Glasdesville Bridge, Tarban Creek Bridge, and Fig Tree Bridge during the first half of the journey. I must say, the views from some of these bridges are excellent. Not really those out-of-the-world types of scenery, but still it would look exceptionally good on a post card. Anyway, fatigue and pain were starting to kick in for some of the gals by the 3rd to 4th bridge, but for me, I was still feeling alright. Aching from my foot is definite, but nothing too serious that I could’t bear or hindered my progress. But what I absolutely hate is the steep up hills and down slopes that is so frequent throughout the last 2/3 of the journey! Argh...

We had wanted to have our lunch somewhere in Hunters Hill – before Fig Tree Bridge, but we didn’t find any restaurants along the way! Yes, lots of residential area in the suburbs, but no eateries etc. These residents must be filthy rich and drive to city have their meals etc or they just simply cook at home and not eat out, therefore no need of having restaurants around! Land of the foodless! And so, we have to resort to eating the chocolates and biscuits that the gals brought, in the station/village in Lane Cove that is after the Fig Tree Bridge. Bought an ice cream as well, and for a freaking $3.10! Oh well, the weather was hot and ice creams were just the right thing to have!

Continued our journey again at around 2.15pm, and the journey was really killing with up-hills and fatigue at this later stage. Coupled with the need to constantly wave off the relentless flies that keep buzzing around you and landing on your face whenever they can, this last 2 hours of the 7 bridges walk was the toughest. And at long last, after a grueling 7.5hours since the start of our journey, we managed to reach our final bridge and destination – Sydney Harbor Bridge. This would be the second time I cross this bridge, the first being the Sydney Harbor Bridge 75th anniversary celebration where I got to walk on the road of the bridge itself. This time round though, the road weren’t closed, and thus we use the pedestrian walkway by the side of the road instead.

Anyway, the ending was rather disappointing. We got off the Sydney Harbor Bridge at somewhere near Argyle Street, to get our last stamp of the journey. And, well, after a long and tough walk I was expecting some fun, some carnival of some sort or something like that to mark the end of nearly 30km walk. But little did I expect all that greeted me was just a couple of guys seating under a huge umbrella stamping my event passport, and that’s it! No cheers for completing, no carnival, nothing fun – what a let down! And it’s so pathetic that I have to print off my cert of completion online as well. I would have felt better if they would have a ready-made piece of cert, and just write my name on it on the spot and gave it to me!

Haiz… anyway, luckily the dinner was not bad, which kinda make up for the disappointment. As the event passbook came along with a free side dish voucher for Wagamama, we decided to head to Wagamama for our dinner. I ordered a Teriyaki Steak Soba, Shikoku island ice tea, and 2 scoops of ice cream, all for $27.40 in total. The soba was nice, a little salty but is still delicious overall. My only complain on it is that the portion is too small – kinda only half full after finishing it. My Shikoku island ice tea was really very nice and refreshing – absolute vodka splashed with ginger ale and lemon iced tea. Probably the best drink in the house! LOL… Had black sesame and lychee ice cream – yum yum… Overall, it’s a nice meal over at Wagamama with nice restaurant layout etc. A piece of advice though if you decided to visit Wagamama, do not go in the afternoon! That is because that the Wagamama restaurant is a semi-open concept style of restaurant, where there is no wall on the side of the restaurant that is facing the darling harbor. And this is the side that faces the west, which means that the afternoon and setting sun is going shine straight into the restaurant and at you! Therefore, it kinda makes eating in the restaurant and attempting to look out to the nice darling harbor view in the afternoon kinda hard on the eyes. But nonetheless, it’s a restaurant that I would definitely consider going back again!

And after our dinner, we went over to Cockle Bay to grab a seat, chit chat, and enjoy the night view of the Darling Harbor for me, and finally end the long day about an hour later… We went over to Chinatown, wanting to grab the famous pie from Harry de Wheel but it was closing when we got there.. argh… oh well, just have to get it again some other time…

Overall, a fun and eventful day!! =) And oh, do check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/tummybear/sets/72157602761163803 for more pictures of the 7 bridges walk!