Fun on the Funicular Stairway?

While I was in Sydney in January (and still completing Round 4, 2012 of the 12WBT) I was always on the lookout for good places to exercise. I discovered a great one in the grounds of the old Quarantine Station (now called the Q Station) on North Head, Sydney Harbour....the Funicular Stairway!

To incorporate FUN into the name of these stairs seems a dubious sort of thing to do......they go on forever and ever and ever. Even if you aren't there for the specific purpose of flogging yourself on them, you're going to feel some pain! I went back on two separate occasions and conquered those suckers, but I've forgotten how many there were (probably due to the fact that I was delirious with heat exhaustion at the time - that's my story and I'm sticking to it). I know it was more than 200, and I sprinted/ran/walked/hobbled/dragged myself up and down them six times (probably much to the amusement of the diners eating breakfast at the Boilerhouse restaurant at the base of the stairs - bet they didn't know they were getting a free comedy panto thrown in that day!).

I wasn't the only crazy one doing laps of those stairs either. I came across at least one group of bootcampers, fresh off their kayaks, running up and down like maniacs....made me feel right at home! I even had a visit from my little guy. He is quite the stair climber (you can just see him patiently waiting behind me in the shot above....he's not silly, he'd worked out that I would be coming back down again).

PS. If you go to the Q Station web page and watch the slideshow banner they have at the top of their page.....look carefully, because Lucey Blue appears in one of those shots. She's famous ;-)!