Where? Official Information
There are 3 main drop locations. If you are doing this track without help from a friend and a car these are the only food drops you should think about:
- Stanley Chasm (private, no locker room it’s stored behind the kiosk)
- Ellery Creek
- Ormiston Gorge
Glen Helen Resort is a 4th option, but note it is a 4km each way detour and is soon after Orminston.
If you can convince a friend to bring you food along the trail, there’s additional spots where a car could reach. I wouldn’t recommend leaving unattended food there.
How? Who?
I did not have access to transport, so I used a company – Larapinta Transfers. If you don’t have a car you could potentially hitch out to deliver your food boxes, but this adds time and uncertainty to your trip. You’ve also got to hitch carry big food drops and do the same thing at the end of your trip to collect them. The cost as of 2017 is $40 per food drop. Plus $5 if you want to rent the large plastic boxes.
How it works is you turn up either with a box or if you’re renting a box, just all your stuff. You fill and label the boxes and leave them with the company. The store is easily located in Alice’s center and where very relaxed about me going in and out adding things as I thought of bits to add. They give you a key (for a refundable $50 deposit).
When you get to the site, you open up the storage room, you find your box, you take what you need, then you replace it with rubbish and anything you want to pick up when you return (label this so they know it’s not rubbish). You return the box to the storeroom and they will pick it up. When you’re back in Alice you can go return your key and pick up anything you sent back. They also where happy to store a pack before I headed off. This means you can safely leave a clean set of clothes or unneeded travel gear during your whole trek, most hostels also offer this service.
If you have a car – you can organise a storeroom key from the visitors center in Alice. It’s a $10 fee and the $50 deposit. Then you drive out before hand to drop off your boxes and after to collect your boxes.
What?
The resupply boxes you rent are large 50L tubs. As I was traveling solo, I had a lot of space in each tub, but even if you’re a few people this is a good amount of space.
What went in my boxes:
- My planned out hiking food.
- New 220g gas can.
- New batteries.
- Maps of the next sections.
- New lighter.
- First aid – blister pads, loo roll, water purification tabs, suncream.
- Rest day food – these still need to last till you get there, but don’t need to be light. Oranges keep well and were the highlight of my boxes. I also included: biscuits, crisps, a tube of condensed milk, 1l Maximus drink (this was great because I kept the bottle for hiking with), chocolate, cans of beans etc. I didn’t think very hard about the extra food as I didn’t realise I had so much space. I did a last-minute run around Coles. This randomness was actually fun. Not fully knowing what treats I had in my next box.
- Extra soups in case my original meal plan had been too small or I needed to add a day.
What I didn’t include, but would recommend:
- A bag you can mark as keep items.
- A pen and paper to write a note to the company with any information of what to do with your gear. Also good if the pen you’re carrying runs out.
- Multiple oranges.
- A small bottle of whiskey. It’s nice to have things to share in your resupply box, as you’ll probably have met people along the way and it’s fun to share a drink or a packet of biscuits. Particularly if you didn’t have to carry it.
- A new book.
- New clothes/underwear. (I didn’t own a lot of technical clothes, so I was happy to keep one set the whole way).
- Camp shoes – just for the day (assuming a rest day).
- Camera charger as there are electric plugs at Stanley and Ormiston.