Today I Faced One of My Dragons

"If you face the dragon, it may kill you. But if you don't face it, then it surely will."

Today I climbed to the top of a 64mtr tower crane. 64mtrs is high, I'll tell you! I took photographs looking down on smaller tower cranes that seemed a long distance below. Anyway, the experience was nothing short of terrifying!

I've been up a tower crane before, although only a 46mtr one (only?), and felt the same emotions both times; Once you're up the top - and have steadied yourself for a few minutes - it's okay. You finally pluck up the courage to step out of the cab, climb up to jib height and walk along above the cab to the concrete counter-weight end. Standing outside the cab is okay, even if the whites of my knuckles may well have been showing through my gloves, but getting to the concrete ballast is a bit nerve wracking because as the hook trolleys up and down the cable moves from side to side at about neck height. This has the power to decapitate, so not to be taken lightly.

Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent, the real scary thing is the climb up. Well, not the climb exactly, that's okay if a little knackering, but standing on the resting platforms. That is absolutely terrifying! I can't remember ever feeling this scared.

There's no usual guard rails, you see, so you're just standing there with the bracing going up at a 45 degree angle. There is a thin rail, but you can't help thinking that there';s an awful lot of space to fall through. "Supposing I slip? What's to stop me ?" It is incredibly alarming! And you can't step away from the leading edge, because you're only stepping closer to the edge behind you!

And worse than that is actually climbing onto the platforms. You seem to climb into a space of nothing and are actually at a stage where there's nothing between head height and waist except space and a long drop. It goes against all your instincts to force yourself to take the next step.

The whole experience has drained me.

However, worse than all this, it's been requested - and I've actually agreed - to do a crane rescue course! This involves harness training, which should be no problem. I've done all that before. I've abseiled into a hole in the ground for my Confined Space certificate. Nope, I'm not worried about the harness training at all. Piece of cake. What I am starting to get a little nervous about is that once I'm harnessed up I'm going to have to climb over the side and let go.

The idea of all this is that if a crane driver has a heart attack or is otherwise taken ill I'll be able to go up and get him.

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Perhaps it'll come to nothing.