Australia - Stuart Highway Adelaide to Darwin

linguist

First time poster here so greetings to all and thanks in advance for any advice given!

I'm in the lucky position of being able to plan for a 3-4 week trip to Australia in late July-August of next year. I know the country pretty well having gone several times but this will be my first trip in five years. Having done many of the more popular routes, I've settled on the Stuart Highway, at least for the moment. So I'm looking for some good advice around the following. Please feel free to help with one or more and anything is appreciated.

1) From Adelaide to Alice Springs, my options are to do it all by Greyhound coach or to join a tour. I've done backpacker tours before and enjoy them and I'll be staying in hostels where possible anyway. Does anyone have views or recommendations either way?

2) I know it'll be very cold at night in the desert. Has anyone done the swag camping that the tours tend to offer? Realistically, were you warm enough at night or is this madness in what will be the coldest period of the year?

3) What's the story with showering on those camping tours? I don't mind roughing it a bit but the thoughts of going several days without a proper wash is pushing it!

4) There's risk anywhere in the world but one does read a range of stuff about dangers in Alice Springs. Any thoughts/advice?

5) From Alice Springs to Darwin, I can see myself taking the Greyhound coach and buying a kilometre pass. I'm thinking of stopping off at 2-3 roadhouses. Does anyone have any recommendations or experiences good or bad? Daly Waters looks like a very good one. Anyone been there?

6) Money: I'm thinking of mainly relying on cards including an An Post prepaid currency card given the long distances between ATMs. Is this generally ok in the roadhouses etc - even for something as small as paying for a beer?

So that's it for the moment at least. Again, thanks for any advice you may have.