It’s been two years since our last camping adventure, and when we booked our camp site at the end of January, we thought that we would get a good few days of camping.

We wanted a place that was within a 4 hour drive (including stops), had a place to swim (my request), was dog friendly (so we could bring our beagle), had a toilet, and (at Hubby’s request) had a shower of some sort. Yes, he’s a fussy one. Upper Colo Reserve fitted the bill, having all of those things.

Our last few tries have all been marred by rain, and the last by a little heat, but January seemed mild enough, so perhaps the end of February would be mild too. Little did we know that we’d be camping through the hottest period of this summer…

First afternoon was pretty warm, around 33C or so. Because we came mid-week, we had much of the campsite to ourselves. Upper Colo Reserve is at the edge of Wollemi National Park, on the Colo River. Though it’s just under 100km from Sydney CBD, it felt like a whole lot further away.

Note the jerry cans and water bottles full of water. It would prove to be very important the following 36 hours…