I grew up in a rural area, with no exposure to high buildings, and so never really got used to heights.
In fact, they used to make me nervous, until I realised that worrying about heights was stopping me from doing things.
So it was time to face my fears – and what better way than climbing over the top of the 02 dome in London!
On the Greenwich side of the river Thames, the 02 is a major events venue (with a great selection of restaurants) and a walkway suspended above its outer shell. You can see it as a white line above the main dome in the photo below.
I watched a few people cross over it, had a look at the website, and decided that this was a thing that I could do.
It wasn’t something that I needed to be super-fit to achieve, it wasn’t outrageously high, but would give me a real feeling of achievement.
The group was mixed age and mixed physical ability, which was reassuring. We had a safety briefing and pulled on overalls and a harness, which had a clip on so that we could attach ourselves to safety wires.
Our group leader was fantastic – so reassuring and encouraging!
The views from the top were great, I felt that I’d really achieved something and the height didn’t worry me in the slightest!
The path, because it’s suspended over the dome, has a bit of ‘give’ which was a bit disconcerting to begin with, as was the illusion of a sudden drop on the way down.
But, honestly, it was fine. And really not that strenuous.
And thanks to the safety harness and the section-by-section movement, perfectly safe.
It was a great experience, and one which really helped me reassess my feelings and attitude to heights.
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