Coober Pedy - baptized as the opal capital of the world - is located in the middle of the Australian desert, more than 800 kilometers from Adelaide, the largest city in the area.
Visiting this point on the map is quite easy because it is crossed by the Stuart Highway route, also known as A87.
Nothing in the Australian town of Coober Pedy is for the faint of heart: it's scorching hot, it's in the remote outback, and it's usually covered in a thin veil of red dust from local opal mines. Anecdotally, residents have gotten creative, building an underground community in ancient mines and creating everything from excavated houses, to a Church of traditional Serbian Orthodox architecture and its fascinating sandstone sculptures.
Today about 60% of the 3,500 inhabitants live underground. At its height in the 1970s and 1980s, the city was home to more than 1,000 miners. Currently, there are only about 100 miners.
THE CITY IS BECOMING A LEADER IN SUSTAINABLE LIVING
In recent years, the underground city has been attracting attention for a new reason: its hybrid power project. Taking advantage of the area's sunny and breezy climate, the Coober Pedy Renewable Power Plant generates 70% of the energy needed to power the city. In a place where temperatures are known to reach 45°C in the summer, cleaner energy sources provide relief from the smoke and heat of the diesel fuel once used to power the city.
The magic of the place is not only lived in the depths, but on the surface you can also appreciate those strong mining roots and the eccentricities of the city. It also enjoys an annual festival: the Coober Pedy Opal held on March 26th. That day, the inhabitants have the opportunity to come together and celebrate their cultural ties. At the event you can enjoy food and drinks, craft stalls and market, games and entertainment.
THE ONLY UNDERGROUND HOTEL IN THE WORLD, FOR BOLD TOURISTS:
At the Desert Cave Hotel you can sleep under the ground, a unique experience. This hotel opened in 1981 and since then it has been one of the most popular alternatives for tourism. The guest will feel calm, cool, ventilated and dark. The rooms are spacious with high ceilings. And those who have slept in the depths of the earth assure that they have spent the best night of their lives. The hotel also has an underground network of shops, a cafeteria, an opal interpretation center, a bar and a games room. It is a place where it seems that time has stopped.
WHAT TO DO IN COOBER PEDY?
It is possible to visit an opal working camp, to learn about the methods of extracting the mineral, or delve into an old working mine to see the traces of opal embedded in the sandstone. You can also visit the world famous Dog Fence, the longest fence in the world that stretches 5,300 kilometers through Australia. And for those who dare to dig in the mines and get their own opal stone, they will be given a pick, a shovel, and a permit to dig.
This strange and extremely beautiful landscape has been the setting for many movies, such as Mad Max, Beyond Thunderdome, starring Mel Gibson and Tina Turner, or Red Planet, which is not strange because this site would be the most Similar to Mars on Earth.
Undoubtedly the red and the wild are a magnet for those who visit it.
