There's something magical about things other than the colour they are meant to be - lakes should be blue or green or even brown - but pink? Now that's something worth seeing. In the North East of Victoria, Australia, are three main National Parks, Murray Sunset being closest to the NSW border. Stretching over 6,330 km², it features forests, desert and salt lakes, and it's edge sits on the Murray River which borders NSW.

Of course it's sunrise and sunset where the pink lakes are most spectacular, but depending on the water levels, cloud cover and sunshine you'll see the pink glow at any time of the day. Camped at one of the few free camping grounds, we watched many cars pull up with couples spilling out to capture selfies by the water's edge, delighting in the salt crust that forms the edge of the lake. In fact, like us, many scooped handfuls of salt into bags or containers like Australians have done for many, many years. In fact, people used to mine for salt here back in the day.

Lake Crosbie is the biggest free campground there, with drop toilets and a rainwater tank. It's a lovely campground with fire pits and a view of the lake. You can actually walk all the way around it. However, please take water. If you are stupid enough to walk around it at sunset like we did, realise the distance is deceptive - it will take you about two hours, and if you lick salt off sticks like we did, you might end up a tad thirsty.

One of the most fun things was walking into the centre of the lake. It's kinda strange, as it never gets very deep - at one point, it reached over my ankle bones! The further you walk in, the more the tesselations of salt, and it will scratch your feet and hurt - it's very abrasive!

The history of the place is well explained at a 'museum' on the north side of the lake (there's another small camping ground near there too at Lake Becking, which has another lovely walk worth doing if you have a few days), but it's more of a detailed information board. Still, there's a few interesting stories on there, such as how people used to come and holiday there, and, being without an esky, they'd bring a cow or a chicken to eke their supplies out. The salt would be piled up in big heaps and they'd need dynamite to break it up. It was certainly hellish hot work and a lot of them would suffer melanomas and cataracts in the blinding hot sun.

Salt was mined from 1916 to help meet the demand for it due to WW1. Ebenezer Jones, saw the opportunity and began with a shovel and pick! By1922 the Afghan Cameleers used their camels to cart salt to the railway - far better than cows as they didn't need as much water or food. Of course trucks replaced them later on and a school and small town rose up to support the salt mining industry. It ended in 1979 and the area became a National Park.

The southern end is quite accessible by 2WD, so if you are passing, it is well worth stoppoing for a day or two. I think a lot of people miss out on seeing the best of Victoria by sticking the coast, but I was quite in love with the treasures the Murray Sunset had to offer, and the lure of the pink lakes certainly didn't disappoint. I also came away with enough salt to last me for a few years!

Have you ever seen a pink lake?

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