Coober Pedy is a town made almost entirely of corrugated iron - every above-ground building incorporates some of it. Walls, window sills, roofs and fences are made from corrugated iron. Even some toombstones are made from corrugated iron. There's hardly any green vegetation in town or anywhere in the surrounding landscape which is perforated by abandoned opal mines. Signs lining the road warn travelers to not depart from the beaten track, lest they whish to spend the remainder of their days starving to death with a broken leg at the bottom of a 30-meter mineshaft. Freezing nights are interleaved with scorching days, and the dry wind blows fine dust into every crevice of your sweat-covered body. The streets (of which only a few are sealed) are lined with derelict, rusting mining equipment, stray dogs and drunks. The buildings that are not abandoned feature signs hawking goods or services somehow connected to opals; sell, buy, essay, visit the mines, whatever.

I love the place.