The sun is warm through the windscreen and bellies full of beer battered fish and chips, doze lazily as I drive. Wide salt flats and twisted Eucalypts litter the landscape. Those that remain open-eyed are hypnotised by the monotony.
Snaking its way up a rise, the road is marked with the brown, diamond-shaped sign with which we have become familiar. Tourist stop ahead. As I turn to the bloke beside me, he’s already started to giggle. What’s there to see out here?
We crest and can see much further ahead than we have for some time. He points to the left as we descend. I spot it and in my surprise, hit the brakes far harder than I intend. The sudden jolt brings derisive moans from the sleepers as they rouse. “Well they didn’t lie,” the giggler concedes.
Pulling into a stopping lane at the bottom of the hill, we get out and stand at the edge of this body of water. I’m lost for words. I’ve seen coloured lakes before but not this big, and not this…well…lolly pink.
It is the algae that live in this lake that make it so special. As the water evaporates and exposes them to sunlight, they release a chemical to cloud the liquid that keeps them safe. I don’t know what that chemical is, but it’s a pretty cool party trick I’d love to learn.
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