beardless wrote:Thank you for all the options and thoughtful discussion. I am convinced not to go the wineskin (okay for a short walk up to a high camp but not as the main water storage for three days in rough terrain). I will weigh up the other options. Dromedary sounded good but not keen on the taint to the taste.
I can second (third/fourth?) the use of the MSR Dromedary. I have had a 4l bag I've used often, and harshly. I can just fit it in the hydration area down the back of my 74l Osprey Aether, MSR sell a sturdy hydration hose for them. It is my go to for any trip other than an overnight with guaranteed (tank) water. I now fill it every time I come cross a water source. I once hiked till 10PM to get to water (4l over 13 hours, in Summer), because expected water sources were dry, never again.
I use it in tandem with the MSR gravity filter (now the AutoFlow™ XL Gravity Filter 10 L). Mine is only 4L compared to the new one. In tandem I can easily carry 4l low down and close to my back, and another 4l on top of my pack. You can mix and match capacities obviously. The upsides are pretty obvious. You have a system that is extremely fast at filtering, very robust, very reliable and serves multiple uses. The downside of it is that it's a heavier that other filter systems where you are not regularly carrying large amounts of water.
In a place like the Flinders Ranges, I doubt there is a system that will rival it.
The taste was an extremely minor problem for me, but it faded pretty quickly. I have the older red bags.