Attractions

You can visit one of the five underground churches in town, as well as dugout cafes, bookshops, galleries, and plenty of underground opal showrooms. Most are located along the main street, or you can find details at the visitor's information center.

Worth seeing is Umoona Opal Mine and Museum, on Lot 14, Hutchison Street, one of a couple of opal-mines-cum-museums in town. There are four tours daily at 10am, noon, and 2 and 4pm, which include a good 20-minute documentary on how the opal was found in Coober Pedy in 1915 by 14-year-old William Hutchison while searching for water. Inside the museum is also an Aboriginal interpretive center, a gallery, an old opal mine, and of course the ubiquitous opal showroom and shop. Entry to the museum is free -- unless you succumb to opal fever and are unable to resist temptation in the showroom.

About 30km (18 miles) from town are the Breakaways, a series of flat-topped hills or "jump-ups." Head out here at sunset, when it's not only cooler but the sandstone pillars, pinnacles, and gully edges glow pink, red, brown, purple, yellow, and white in the fading light. Just a bit farther down the road, you'll find the famous dog fence and the Moon Plains -- the local nickname for the moonlike desert landscape along the fence. The 2m-high (6.6-ft.) dog fence stretches across three states for more than 5,300km (3,293 miles) in an effort to keep northern dingoes away from southern sheep; it's the longest fence in the world.

If you want to see parts of Australia that most Australians never see, join an honest-to-goodness Mail Run (tel. 08/8672 5226), with a postal carrier, for a 12-hour journey out into the bush. Tours leave Monday and Thursday from Coober Pedy's Underground Books (tel. 08/8672 5558) and travel along 600km (372 miles) of dirt roads to Oodnadatta and the William Creek cattle station, stopping at five stations along the route. It can get pretty hot and dusty outside (think endless horizons of flat lands), but it's relatively comfortable inside the air-conditioned four-wheel-drive, and you'll have the chance to see such wildlife as eagles, emus, and the ever-present kangaroos. Bring your own lunch or buy it along the way at Oodnadatta or William Creek. Tours cost around A$165 (US$149/£74) for adults and A$85 (US$77/£38) for children under 12, though kids might find the long trip difficult. This up-close-and-personal look at life in the bush could easily be one of the most memorable experiences you have in Australia.