EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

Unless you stay long enough to meet some locals, you'll probably feel that, like Marree, OODNADATTA survived the Ghan's closure with little to show for it. A few logically arranged but untidy streets lacking atmosphere or purpose, Oodnadatta was founded as a railhead in 1890, and mail and baggage for further north had to make do with camel trains from here until the line to Alice Springs was completed in 1928. Now that has gone, the town has become a base for the Aranda community - utnadata ("mulga blossom") is the Aranda name for a local waterway - and 4WD crews heading into the Simpson Desert. After rain you'll even need a 4WD for the last slippery kilometre into town, past the racecourse. If your visit coincides with the race weekend in May, helicopters will be circling the track on the left, trying to dry it out, and the town will be deserted, so stop at the track, buy a pass and join in. With neat clothes and some sort of tie, you'll even get into the "formal" ball afterwards.

Camp at the Pink Roadhouse (tel 08/8670 7822, Lynne_plate@bigpond.com ), unless the relative luxury of a bed at the Oodnadatta Hotel appeals (tel 08/8670 7804; $50-70). The roadhouse acts as a store, bank, post office and café, and sells detailed sketch maps of the area. The hotel holds the key to the Railway Museum opposite, where you'll find a strangely timeless photographic record of the town - scenes are hard to date because so little seems to have changed. Stock up with provisions and then check in at the police station (tel 08/8670 7805) for a report on the roads and next fuel supplies if you plan to head north towards Dalhousie Springs and the Simpson Desert (4WD only), or west to the Stuart Highway at Coober Pedy or Marla.