Oodnadatta Track Camp Ground Water Availability

Thanks for your help Stephen, after reading your blog I was hoping you'd respond here. Appreciate the feedback, the disposable cartons are a great idea. I have a fridge in the Pajero so I'll also have bottled drinking water.

? I live in Bunbury WA and all the water here is "bore" water...what is the issue with "minerals". Don't they sell "mineral water" in shops at elevated prices :)

Wonder what the locals drink at William Creek, Oodnadatta etc - surely not imported bottle water? Have been to these places and dont recall the drinking water out of taps in the camp grounds being an issue. More a personal preference than anything I suspect.

Some "bore" water does taste "different" but not sure the towns mentioned would be suffering through bad water i.e. no need to turn your car into a water tanker when travelling these well frequented tourist routes.

My suggestion (unless you have a high sensitivity to "bore" water) would be to take your 20 litre "bulky water container" and fill it up as required instead of the 6 x 10 litre non bulky water containers suggested elsewhere.

Bemused.

Cheers
Greg

water filter

Hi Greg

As you know, there is bore water, and then there is bore water.

When we lived out of Clare when we were kids, that was all we had, and it was real sweet and good quality water and was only down less that 3 metres. The bore water along the Oodnadatta Track comes from hundreds of metres down, and quite often is even too salty for stock to drink.

At William Creek and it would be better to drink sea water. You will not get you shampoo or soap to lather up, clean your teeth and you will think it is salt water......so no good for drinking and never to be used in your vehicle.

Go to Oodnadatta and they sell the 10 litre Spring water by the pallet load, as again the water is still very poor in quality.

As for only taking 20 litres as you suggest, that is no where near enough for any serious bush trip. When we head away on our bush trips, we are always fully prepared and depending how remote the trip is, carry between 80 to 100 litres of water, spread over many containers, so it can be distributed evenly in the car and in the foot wells in the back to keep the weight down low.

Each to their own, but we have ventured out into our remote parts of South Australia too many times and go as Boy Scouts do........prepared.



Cheers



Stephen

Hi

The OPs question was simple - can you top up a water container (presumably for drinking) at the main towns/managed campgrounds along the Odnadatta Track - simple answer is - Yes you can. Fair enough to point out its "bore" water but suspect most would find it palatable. If you have high sensitivities and a low tolerance to any thing different then by all means stock up with Mt Franklin.

I never suggested that he should take just 20 litres. I just said it was possible to fill his 20 litre container with water at the locations mentioned - I provided no other advice. There was no information provided that indicated he was doing a "serious bush trip" or that he needed lots of soft water for a good lather up out in the scrub.

The actual volume of water required would of course be dependant on the number of people, where they planned on going, where they were staying, time of year, how many lathery shows needed per day, etc etc. For drinkng alone a total of ~20 litres is probably the bare minimum you should have in your car (for two people) if staying on the track and travelling between the main campsites (though would suggest having enough to drink while keeping the majority for emergency) which may well be the OPs intention....or maybe not.

Cheers
Greg

sorry guys I should point out its just me & my dog going, the water is for drinking only, if I need a wash I'll use the showers that are available at the camp grounds. I'm travelling the track from Marree to Marla, then heading up to Alice.

Like Stephen, I'm a big advocate for taking boxed water over 20L containers.
Buy the 10L boxed water from large supermarkets, like Coles or Woolies, $3.85 I think the going price is at the moment. For less than $25, that gives 60L of good potable water.
As they are used, the cardboard boxes can be burned. The bladders can be saved, and can be re-used. They can be stowed full of water even if the box is long gone, they are quite hardy. (Try jumping on an inflated 10L bladder, I bet London to a brick you'll be off to ER with a busted ankle).
As also stated above, 10L containers of boxed water can easier be distributed down low, and from side to side as required to keep the vehicle 'in trim'.
There is a lot of inbuilt redundancy in 6 x 10L boxes of water, than one or two 20L containers.
I've not traveled with water containers for quite some time, boxed water at the cheap price it is available at, you just can't go past it.

A good quality rum will further enhance the taste of the bore water & lime juice. Bickfords Lime Juice cordial would be my preference.

Bob