Date: 23/08/2020
I joined Felix trip to Newnes for canyoning again! I love coming to Felix trips since they are very exploratory and has many unexpected wonders. This time we had to meet at Lidsdale at 7:30 so I had to carpool with Liam in Wentworth Falls, another guy on our trip. We headed to Newnes after meeting up at Lidsdale.
The guys parked their cars at Newnes campground, that was also our starting point. Newnes campground was established after the town was abandoned. Before that, Newnes used to be an oil town. The campground was very green, much more than I was expected after the bushfire. It stood in the middle of a lot of high mountains and pagoda. We saw a few campers there even though this was Monday!
We started to follow the Wolgan river to a crossing where it meets the Petries Gully river.
Walking in the bush in Newnes was very interesting as there are a lots of remnants of the abandoned town, we even saw a platform for a school that used to be here. The river flowed very strongly as it rained a few days ago. Felix showed us how the Wolgan river will meet the Petries river to form the Colo river.
Felix by Wolgan river
From the crossing, we started to ascend to the top of a mountain. I struggled a bit to keep up with the guys speed but I managed to not get lost! We stopped 2 times. Our second stop was at a lookout where we can overlook the Newnes state Forest as well as the Wolgan valley. It was very beautiful but very cold and windy at the same time.
Taking a small break before reaching the top
The scenery up top was astonishing
This canyoning trip was different from all the trips that I had done in that we went up and then abseiled down to the level that we were in before whereas it's the other way usually. We walked through a tiny canyon and put our abseiling gear on.
A weird overhang
A mini canyon!We reached another canyon shortly after that. This was when Felix realised that this was not the canyon he was looking for. So basically, we came across an unknown canyon! And because there wasn't any anchor, we thought that no one has came across this canyon before! Again!
The canyon was very short but there was a part where only I and Felix was able to squeeze through and took a look since our body size were small enough.
It was very fun! There were a lot of mini waterfalls once we came out of the canyon. 
After another short abseil down a pool, We decided to walk around to a section where Felix thought we might be able to descended back to the crossing.
Had lunch at this spot
However, we came across another canyon! This was the middle section of Bluestone canyon according to Felix. We still had three more abseils to finish this canyon. The first abseil we abseiled down a pool that was knee deep. The canyon was very nice, with limestone formation that allowed it to have a yellow colour.
Felix was not happy about this anchor
He said it was not gonna get wetter than this. He was wrong. The next
abseil we landed in a pool that was chest deep for me!
I had to swim to
get to our final abseil down a short waterfall to finish the canyon. It
was very fun!
As we reached the crossing we found our way on a very cleared track back to the campground.
There were more ruins along the way, most of them were chimneys, which made a very interesting picture. We even saw what seemed to be a tennis court! To think that this place used to be lively before somehow made me feel a little bit sad.
We finished the trip at 4pm, this was a very fun trip for me to start the week and I would said this was my first time to did two canyons in a day! This was also my first exposure to a wet canyon.
