Oodnadatta Track Itinerary - Britz

Eleven nights and 2,790 kilometres in a loop from Adelaide in a 4WD camper, up the Oodnadatta Track and back through Coober Pedy.

Port Augusta and the Flinders Ranges come first, then Marree, where the bitumen ends and the track begins. It follows the old Ghan railway line, which ran north from Adelaide towards Alice Springs until 1980 and was then abandoned where it stood, so the route passes sidings, water tanks and bridges left standing in the desert.

Coward Springs follows, where an artesian bore feeds a soaking pool beside the old station, then William Creek, which has a population in single figures and a pub, and from which flights go out over Lake Eyre, the lowest point in Australia and a salt pan the size of a small country that fills perhaps three times a century. The Algebuckina Bridge comes next, the longest bridge in South Australia and part of the same old line, then Oodnadatta and its pink roadhouse, and Coober Pedy, Woomera and the Clare Valley on the way home.

Britz supply the camper and the day-by-day plan, and the hire is priced live per vehicle rather than per person; campsites, fuel, ferries, park fees and activities are all extra, with a nil-excess insurance pack available at booking. The track is unsealed, corrugated and closed after rain, and the gaps between fuel and water are long, which makes this a genuine outback drive rather than a scenic one. Twelve days is a sensible allowance for it. Whether Lake Eyre holds any water is a matter of luck, and the flight from William Creek is the only way to see it properly.