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.
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.
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