Greencaviar Travel

Part 2 - Exploring the Sapphire Coast From Wollongong, we headed to the Sapphire Coast via the coastal road, Princess Highway. The plan was to stop at famous sites and for R to drive for 4 hours max a day and spend the rest of the day exploring or on outdoor activities like hiking. Doing the road in a linear fashion felt as if we were really on a road-trip. Our car was packed with huge suitcases for a month worth of clothes, groceries and water. The drive on the coastal road was incredible. Princess Highway was sandwiched between the coast and the mountains, the scenery was amazing. I saw a few kangaroo and wallaby carcasses along the road. R warned me to keep my eyes peeled for a kangaroo or kangaroos crossing the road. They usually come out before sunset, stop, jump, cross and stop and get ran over by motorists. After two hours, we arrived at Milton, a town known for historic buildings which could be seen from the highway, for example, the Heritage Bakery Shop - Milton 1870....

PART 1:  BLUE MOUNTAINS AND PORT MACQUARIE BLUE MOUNTAINS I’ve been to Blue Mountains three times before, so I did not intend on going there again on this recent trip. But when I saw a picture of my little niece sitting on the white rock overlooking a valley and across mountain, backdropped by beautiful hues of blue, I was inspired to take the same photo. Little did I know that "L" my travel planner and travel guide on this month-long road-trip already had this place listed in our itinerary. So, our first day was spent at a place called Lincoln’s Rock, a massive flat rock on top of the mountain.  L and R, my travel companions challenged me to sit on the rock jagged edge, on 855 meters high cliff mountain, facing the other side of the Blue Mountain Ranges. Lincoln's Rock is not for the faint of heart. After a few minutes of sitting on the edge of the rock, my heart started racing. There's really not much to do at Lincoln's Rock except for photo-ops. Sadly, I left m...

On a recent visit to the Blue Mountains, I saw that the cable car we rode in a decade ago had been retired and now on display like a museum piece. I also noticed that the gift shop and restaurants had been expanded and that we had to go through a long 'queuing' area to get to the ticket counter that it felt as if I was entering an amusement park.  Photo by L.O.M My first visit to the Blue Mountains was a decade ago on my first trip to Australia. I remember several things about that trip. My relatives from Australia and I seemed to be the only visitors there that day. We drove from Sydney and stopped at some park to grill slabs of meat and shrimp on the Barbie. We were surrounded by colorful birds: finches, sparrows, cockatoos. My little niece explained to me how the Blue Mountains got their name (from the blue haze that comes from the oil of the Eucalyptus trees covering the mountains). When we arrived at the park, we bought some tickets to ride the scenic skyway to the ot...

Series 3: Climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Australia The air got colder as we started our ascent heading to the peak of the lower arch.  So I had to wear the fleece jacket attached to my belt. Aside from being suited in astronaut jumpsuit, I carried all the necessary gear like headphones, hats and a jacket provided by Bridge Climb.  Everything was attached to my belt.  We were only allowed to bring sunglasses, but the company provided a strap to secure them. Lockers were provided for all of our other personal belongings. At first, I was not happy at the rule of not being able to take even a phone camera with me to capture and Instagram a photo of my adventure. I thought it was another way of the Bridge Climb to make money from the photos because I had to add $54.00 to the actual cost for photos.  As we geared up, I began to understand that everything was for safety reason. The keyword there was to latch-on. Everything was attached to our belt latched on ...