Provisions when travelling on the Oodnadatta Track

About four or five days. Will be a big camp of about 40 - 50 people.

4 or 5 days with 40 to 50 people!!, good luck getting any food or drink that you have not carried in from a major city.

Not sure what your going to do for 4 or 5 days, lunch or a quick overnighter and you have seen it all.

The bridge is your destination??? It's an interesting lunchstop, maybe for a couple of hours, but not a place I'd spend 4 or 5 days.

The PR serves a valuable function for travellers, but I doubt if it could cope with 40-50 people all wanting to restock with food and drink, even if you give them lots of warning. Also - be prepared for prices commensurate with their small size and remoteness. Alcohol especially is very expensive. (Prices and availability at Yulara will also come as a shock.)

Sorry to be so negative, but that's how I see it!

John

Most of the people going on this trip are experienced campers and most of us love the outback so it will be easy to fill in four or five days. There is a lot of history in the area and there will be plenty of people to talk to and just take in the beauty of the bush. To just get away from phones and work pressures will be top priority for most and to catch up with family will be paramount. Of course the trip there and back will also be a great experience - don't know how you could think that you have seen it all - you haven't even scratched the surface if you only had an overnighter or lunch stop.

Overnighter or a lunch stop and you can see the bridge which is all that there is to see at that point.
The Oodnadatta Track is certainly one long interesting trip within itself and if your prepared to base camp it and do long day trips then you will see some more of the track and its history.
The bridge is about 55 kms from Oodnadatta and about 125 kms from William Creek so its a quite a round trip to either "town" and back to the bridge. without much else in between.

Most people travel the track and visit the locations and history stopping overnight as they see fit as one continuous trip heading north or south.

Anyway its your holiday and you can do it anyway you see fit, enjoy.

I have contacted Pink Roadhouse to ask how we should go about ordering provisions from them - still waiting for a response. If we have to we will have a stores order sent in from one of the bigger centres.

We will be out there to celebrate my husband's 60th Birthday. We have relatives in Qld, NSW, SA and WA (north and south) so we figured it would be easiest to have a party in the middle of Australia - thus we picked this area. We plan a dinner/dance in the middleof the desert - will be wonderful.

Just another thought.
Alice Springs is a more central location to all those locations with a few more facilities to cope with the possible needs of 40 or 50 people.

May be easier and overall cheaper to handle such an arrangement if food and booze is such an issue for you??

Or Coober Pedy....?
More expensive, but not so far.

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 Motorhome

Yeah..or Coober Pedy...lol

Haven't shopped there. Have either stayed in Motels or have refuelled and kept on going.


Chs

Would need to be self sufficient in water - there would be no certainty that there would be reliable water there at that time. Bulk potable water is not available from PR. Also firewood is pretty scarce within reasonable distance of the bridge. Lots of campfire sites but people collect wood (and old sleepers if the termites have left any) and carry it in to their camp for many kilometres.

Have memories of taking part in an expedition (scientific) of a similar sized group going out a few hundred kms from Alice for about 10 days. It was a major logistical exercise to provide food, water, and toilet facilities for the group. We used Alice as a provisioning base but even then a return trip was required for extra supplies.

Val.

Did this in August - though not with 40-50 just 6. As well as the Pink R/House there is a store down past the pub.Coober Pedy has a couple of stores and seemed ok with variety and prices. The water in the creek at the bridge was ok - boiled and used for cooking........all blokes so we didn't need to wash for a few days. If you don't want to be viewed by all who pass that way at the Nth end of the creek crossing there is a track hdg East that goes to a camp spot - dusty but ok. But the really good site is about 2kms West along the creek fromt he bridge. Heads into breakaway country and good swimming - just the mud up to the knees in and out makes it interesting. Really good camp spot about the size of a footy field (proper footy field not a square one) on the creek bank. Have a nice time - and there is plenty to keep you and the group occupied for a couple days. rgds