We woke up early Monday morning, and walked over to Darling Harbour to pick up our car. The walk took about half an hour, and took us past Sydney’s China Town. The Europcar pickup location (unbeknownst to us) was in the Novotel, but there was no sign out front. The hotel was the correct address, but we couldn’t find the car rental place, so we went inside and the bellhop desk said that Europcar was on the other side of the wall! It took about half an hour to get the paperwork done, and we got our car…a white Ford Falcon. Caytie was the first to drive on the left! It was pretty funny because you sit on the right side of the car, but the peddles are in the same spot as when you drive on the left side. Also, the windshield wipers and turn signals are switched, which made our first drive a little bit difficult because it had started to sprinkle! One of the first things we noticed about driving in Australia was that their roads were way skinny and their street signs are on the right side of the road, and really tiny! 
We drove back to our hotel, loaded our luggage, and hit the road to go to Target. After a few wrong turns (one of which took us back to Bankstown), we got on our way and went to Target in a mall in one of the suburbs of Sydney which was on the way to the Blue Mountains. After a few purchase like sunscreen, lip balm, and chips, we headed back out to the mountains. We had originally planned to do a couple of hikes at Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains.
Because of the fog and the rain, however, we only drove to the Wentworth Falls’ parking lot and walked to the lookouts. It was beautiful even though it was hard to see anything in the gorge because of the fog and rain. Since we couldn’t do the hike in the rain, we moved on to Scenic World where we were going to view the Three Sisters and take the gondola ride across the valley to the other side of the gorge, take the steepest train in Australia down the mountain, and take a skyview rail back up to Scenic World. We got to Scenic World and we couldn’t see the Three Sisters from the viewing plat form, so we decided to skip paying the money for the rides and drove around the mountain to the free viewing platform at Echo Point.
We got to the Three Sisters parking lot and walked down to the viewing platform. The fog was so heavy we couldn’t see the railing of the platform as we walked down the hill. As we walked down, the fog blew away and we could see the whole gorge, including the Three Sisters! It was perfect timing! We got to see the gorgeous view for about three minutes before the fog blew back in.
We decided since it was no longer raining, we’d take one of the walks around the mountain rim towards the falls. Because of the rain, the path was pretty wet...it was dirt and rock with railroad ties separating sections, so some of the spots were filled with water. At one particular section, we had to walk along the bottom rung of a handrail in order to cross the water-filled section! It was a beautiful walk!
We left Katoomba (where the Three Sisters are in the Blue Mountains) after a brief stop at Coles, a grocery store, for lunch and breakfast fixings, and headed for Canberra (said “can-bra,” with the “a” in bra short). It was about a 4 ½ hour drive from Katoomba. The drive was the first of several drives on some “dodgy” roads that they have in Australia. It was a two-lane road down the mountains through woods and valleys. It was a two-lane road down the mountains through woods and valleys. The speed limit was anywhere from 40 km/hr to 100 km/hr. The speed limit changed every few feet it seemed! There would be a sign for 100 km/hr, and within a few feet we would come to a curve and the speed limit would change to 80 km/hr! 
The fog continued to roll in and out, it was beautiful! Towards the end of the drive out of the Blue Mountains, we saw kangaroos.
It was about dusk, and two of the kangaroos had joeys in their pouch! It took about 3 ½ hours to get out of the Blue Mountains and into civilization (Gouldburn), where we stopped for McDonald’s…$9.40 later for a Quarter Pounder, medium fry, and medium Diet Coke (no refills)! We got into Canberra and to our hotel (Victor Lodge) about 10:30pm, and went straight to sleep!
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