Road Trip, Australia
I've driven internationally before. I've had to deal with unfamiliar signs and roadways. This was different. Not only was everything unfamiliar but the roads and cars were backwards! (At least compared to the United States) As soon as we got to our rental car after arriving back in Sydney I had to get situated in the driver seat on the right side of the car instead of the left like I'm used to. My first turn in that parking garage didn't go so well. I had to turn right. I also had to be on the left side of the road. I wasn't used to having so much car to the left of me (since I'm usually on the left side of the car when I drive) that I almost brushed the wall to the left of me. I wish I could say it got easier but it didn't. The drive to our Airbnb was so difficult. It was dark and I could barely tell if I was staying in my lane. Jami was navigating and she told me to turn left. I missed it. She told me to turn at the next one. I missed it. She told me to turn at any left. Eventually I was able to do it. Why was turning left that hard to do? It hurt my brain. We finally made it to our Airbnb to get some rest for the night before we went on a little road trip to the Blue Mountains the next day. A drive that I suddenly was not looking forward to at all.
The next morning it was time to visit the Blue Mountains and see the Three Sisters. We had a two hour drive to get there and it was so exhausting keeping my mind from going into auto drive. Every time I stopped thinking about it I would hear Jami yell at me, "Left lane! Left lane!". I was drifting into the left lane. I forgot that there was so much car to the left of me again. Luckily, we made it to the Blue Mountains without a scratch.
I thought it was a good idea to go to Scenic World for our Blue Mountain adventure. They had gotten a lot of great reviews on TripAdvisor. Unfortunately, it was not what Jami and I are accustomed to. We don't usually do tours and what this ended up being were long lines to get onto a short gondola ride to the start of a hiking trail to the Three Sisters. Which was ok other than the fact that you could drive to that hiking trail yourself without a line. Also, you can drive right to the Three Sisters! What a waste of time waiting in line for that gondola. After hiking that trail and riding the gondola back we had enough of the lines and of Scenic World. We decided that we would much rather see the animals (especially the kangaroos!) at the Featherdale Wildlife Park. Back to the car!
Featherdale was a much more relaxing time. There were a lot less people! Probably because we got there an hour before they closed. We spent way too much time driving and waiting in line with crowds of people. Jami and I got our tickets and we were off to see as much as we could before they kicked us out. As soon as we got through the entrance we saw a tiny kangaroo just hopping around! Turns out it was a wallaby but they were just exploring the area, not enclosed at all! There were so many of them! We were low on time so we headed straight to the koalas so we could get our picture. We weren't allowed to hold them, which is good for the koalas. Oh and the Tasmanian devils were just like Taz in the Looney Tunes. Just spinning around in circles. There were so many animals but we decided to spend the majority of our remaining time with the kangaroos.
There were so many kangaroos at Featherdale! Jami had a great time feeding them. She even got to feed (and touch) a baby joey while it was inside its mama kangaroo's pouch! We ended up spending the rest of our time at Featherdale with the kangaroos and we fed the until the park closed and it was time to go. It was definitely a good call to leave Scenic World early and visit Featherdale. Seeing all the animals was such a great experience. Especially being low on time.
We drove back to our Airbnb after leaving Featherdale and had dinner in a quiet part of town. The next day we drove to the airport, returned the car, and our Australia adventure was over. We had a long flight back home.
