Australia
Lake Hillier
Pink water flashes between dark island scrub and the blue Southern Ocean.
From the air, a compact pink lake appears between dark coastal scrub and the Southern Ocean. The colour is real; the lawful visitor experience is the wider aerial composition rather than a walk along its shore.
Lake Hillier lies on protected Middle Island in the Recherche Archipelago and is known for its persistent pink colour. Ordinary visitors have no public landing route; the lawful experience is aerial, from light aircraft out of Esperance, where pink lake, green scrub and blue Southern Ocean stack into one improbable frame.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · Powered by Geoapify
Solo
See it from a light aircraft out of Esperance, with the Recherche islands scattered below.
Couple
Pair the aerial pink-green-blue contrast with Esperance's beaches and seafood after landing.
Friends
Share the flight and a coastal day, leaving protected Middle Island itself untouched.
- Lake Hillier's intense pink water sits between Middle Island's green vegetation and the blue Southern Ocean.
- The lake is best experienced from a sightseeing flight, which reveals the colour contrast and surrounding archipelago.
- Middle Island is a protected nature reserve with no ordinary public landing route.
- Esperance's beaches and the Recherche Archipelago make the flight one part of a larger coastal day.
Middle Island feeds no one: lunch stays on the mainland either side of the flight.
Back in Esperance, Lucky Bay Brewing pours beer made from raw barley bought straight off local farms.
Abaiang
Kiribati
At high tide the sea surrounds Tebunginako's church; the village choir times services around it.
Abbotsbury
England
A swannery where six hundred mute swans nest in reed beds behind the Chesil Bank.
Abel Tasman National Park
New Zealand
Golden bays between forested headlands, reached only on foot, by kayak or water taxi.
Aberdaron
Wales
A church on the sand where pilgrims ate their last meal before the island crossing.
Arkaroola
Australia
Ancient granite bucks beneath tyres by day; guided telescopes take over after dark.
Arnhem Land
Australia
Escarpment rock-art country, floodplains and empty tropical coast make up a vast living Aboriginal homeland.
Barossa Valley
Australia
Stone cellar doors, century-old shiraz vines, and the weight of six generations in every glass.
Bay of Fires
Australia
Orange lichen burns across granite beside clear, cold water on Tasmania's north-east coast.