How Much Water?

4 people 40 litres??

My fairer half DRINKS 4 litres a day!!! Then theres cooking, showers,washing up, whatever the hell it is woman do in the bathroom in the mornings, and some clothes washing Servo's often don't want to give out water, in Coober Pedy the caravan parks don't even have water at sites!

We carry over 300litres and this allows us about 10 days away from water. I've found water is not so easy to come by in central Aus and had to pull into caravan parks to fill up afew times. It's nice to have the option to stay camped somewhere for several days and not have to worry about water. When theres plenty around, we just don't fill all the tanks.....

Matt

Depends what you're doing and where you're going. No way would I go out into the desert with just 10lt of water per person!

www.wilderness-survival.net/desert-3.php

Mike Harding

You should take water for all the planned sections of your trip, and also carry enough water for possible unplanned sections.

Water may be freely available, as you put it, but that is only in some places. Other places you can't smell it past the stinking heat of a low rainfall claypan, or the aprehension caused by circling carrion eaters.

Death by thirst is not one I would pick as my favorite way to go!!!

I suggest the biggest issue is where you are going.

It sounds from your post that you were never far from civilisation and a shop to buy bottled water. I also could bush camp for a night or 2 on the supply you suggest but I suggest those you are referring to who are carrying much greater quantities are heading into regions where they may be days or perhaps weeks without a guaranteed top up opportunity.

I am heading across the simpson in a couple of weeks. 6 people in 3 vehicles. We will probably look at carrying about 50L minimum per vehicle. We will be away from civilisation about 3-4 days. Allowing 5Lt per person per day means 40 ltrs per vehicle and then you need to allow for being held up a day or so. Clearly if you have more people per vehicle the equation changes.

That said, the amount of beer and red wine on board will probably be much greater and we are likely to come out the other side with about 40Lts per vehicle still on board LOL! (got to allow something for the cooking and washing up)

Trev

I see yer possibly pointing a finger at me, however you say you're only 3-4 days from water. It can take lotsa that time just to drive to water, so you either carry fuel or water. Can't drink fuel meself so I'll stick to carrying my 250 ltrs of drinkable water. People are inclined to perish without it.

I'll drink to that,

If I had a car only, I'd be quite frugal of course, but with the trailer its easy to tote the 120L in our underbelly tank - adds a safety margin plus the option to pick and choose where we fill and what quality of water we can access - in the case of a turbo diesel, the extra fuel to pull that load around is minimal.

When I was doing our trip planning for our 4 to 5d in the (Simpson) desert, various posts/sites said you should allow 5 litres per person per day plus a 5d reserve. And that didn't include washing etc. The desert parks book says 6 litres per person per day in mild weather (and that allows for "cooking, limited washing and ample drinking"). Well we have a family of 5, so we are talking 250+ litres and that is a _lot_ of extra weight in a loaded-to-the-top car (no trailer).

Now we went in winter and didn't drink that much, nor did we wash clothes/showers during the desert bit. I had a 100 litre water bladder and a 50l water container that were both filled up with Brisbane water. The latter was intended to be used for drinking throughout the entire trip without being refilled, the former to be topped up with bore water when possible.

We topped up the 100 litre bladder as we left the Birdsville caravan park. It did put a bit of a yucky taint on the taste (although it didn't bother me). We all still cooked and drank it, except my wife who insisted on Brisbane water for drinking.

I tried to get it filled at Oodnadatta, but when I asked about getting water they said they could fill 10 litres for $10. When I said I wanted 50 litres or so they said they couldn't help me. I think there was access to a tap if you were staying at the caravan park. (If that was rain/treated water, then you'd probably be cheaper to pay for a night (even if you didn't stay) at the caravan park and fill a large tank than get them to fill it at the roadhouse).

Best place was Coober Pedy. They had a treated water pump by the side of the road especially for motor homes where you would put in 20 cents and get about 30 litres out of a nozzle that looked like a petrol pump. 40 cents saw us topped up and that more than lasted back to Brisbane.

We were fairly frugal with our water usage. We drank what we wanted, but didn't waste anything. It is amazing how little you can use. But then if the car had lost its coolant, or we were stuck for some reason you'd want a bit of a safety margin.

When I returned, I got to water my yard with Coober Pedy water.

-geoff

You need to be prepared for the unplanned situation. Perhaps you poke down a small track to take a look-see. Get stuck. Hot day, water gone.... dead.

Well Barry, everyone makes their own decisions I guess. Me, well there is no way we would be doing some of the trips we do with just 40 litres of water on board.
It's all a matter of the trip you are planning for and the level of comfort and convenience you want.

We carry up to 220 litres. Don't always fill the lot due to weight, but often do. When setting up our rig, I targeted being fully independant (no water, fuel, food supplies) for at least two weeks and up to three weeks if necessary. We have actually camped for over 6 weeks in spots with no access to drinking water.

Some of the places we go, you cannot buy bottled water even if you wanted, and if you could you wouldn't want to pay the price.

So while 40 litres might be enough (and 80 litres 'excessive') for you, it is woefully insufficient for me and many others. Guess we are all different and do different things.
Norm C

When we camped at Innamincka in October last year we used about 40l of drinking water in 6 dyas between 5 of us.

We swam in the creek and used creek water for washing up.

We also drank at the pub and had a couple of meals there which would have saved a considerable amount of water.

Normally we would go through about 20l per day. We don't wash much camping in the desert and we recycle dishwashing water simply poor it back into the drity jerry filtering out the chunky bits. We carry water in plastic jerry cans so if we hle one we lose a maximum of 20l and we have 6 jerries so we can carry 120l. For the 4 days it took us to cross the Simpson we carried all of that but didn't use it.

A source of water that is mostly overlooked is the coin in the slot car wash places that most reasonably sized country towns have. The water they use for the final rinse is filtered by reverse osmosis and is as clean as you can get. It is mostly the same process as used by the water bottling companies. I would check with the operator before filling my drinking water but it is cheaper than the supermarket.

Duncs

Barry,
Cant see the comparison of restocking water supplies at servos and carrying your water on an outback adventure.
To me the outback is a place you wouldn't have servos or water supplies you can always rely on. Therefore 40 litres for 4 adults over 5 weeks gives you about 2 litres a day.
survive.....possibly
dish washing.....no
showers.......bulllshhiitt!
Sounds like your talking about outback Sydney...like North shore???

Cheers