5 Cool BLUE and 5 RED Hot Aussie TOP SPOTS!

Roebuck Bay, Broome, Western Australia

Is BLUE the new RED?

It is downunder where blue and red have been interchangeable for YEARS!

But before you start thinking us Aussies are a nation of colour-blind fools, it's all due to the colloquial contrariness that means we call things the opposite to what they are. So a tall person becomes 'Shorty'. A skinny person becomes 'Fatso'. And a REDhead becomes 'Blue'!

Makes perfect sense. Right?

Lake Argyle, via Kununurra, Western Australia

SO ... although Australia is RED and HOT, it softens round the edges into COOL and BLUE along the coastline and inland where there's a strange blue haze, largely caused by eucalyptus oil, smoke – and possibly language ...

Just to prove I CAN tell the difference, come with me to FIVE each of my top Coolest BLUE and the Hottest RED spots downunder!

Of course 'COOL' and 'HOT' don't always refer to the temperature …

So where do you start looking for the COOLest Cool Blue places on the largest island on earth with the longest coastline of any country in the world? Right HERE! Use my handy round-Australia location guide – complete with 5 star BLUE factor ratings – to uncover five of the coolest, BLUEST experiences in OZ!

Evans River, Evans Head, North New South Wales

1. Blue RIVER at Evans Head

The Evans River in the New South Wales Northern Rivers district isn't Australia's longest, deepest or fastest flowing. But on this day it was surely in the running to be its bluest! Not quite blue enough for you? Head high above the breakwall to the Razorback Lookout for more, with the sea, the sky and distant mountains all contributing to this rhapsody in blue!



Too BLUE for this old film camera ... Evans Head, NSW

Get a blue fix while you take a break from the crowds at more well known tourist hot spots Ballina and Byron Bay, just up the coast.

 

 And while you can't see the excellent bakery or Scenic Public Toilet while you're gazing out to sea, you CAN use all that BLUE to the max by fishing, swimming, boating – and whale-watching!

If that sounds like too much effort, just sit back, relax and enjoy some COOL Blue time out!

COOL BLUE rating: 

Clear BLUE water at Bitter Springs Thermal Pools via Mataranka, Northern Territory

2. Blue POOLS at Bitter Springs

The BLUE waters of the Bitter Springs thermal pools near Mataranka in the Northern Territory aren't cool at all. Loaded with minerals that give new meaning to 'sculpted hairdo' as they rise from the depths of the earth, the water is HOT.

Drifting at Bitter Springs Thermal Pool, Northern Territory

But although the daytime temperature regularly tops 30+ in the Top End, nights can be coolish during the Aussie winter. Cool enough for steam to rise from the stream connecting the three main pools – deserted at this time of day – and cool enough for us to dive right in and drift downstream from pool to pool before the morning rush.

I tried not to think about travellers who used the pools for washing themselves and their clothes in lieu of paying caravan park fees … but luckily at this time of day I'm guessing they were all still curled up in their combi vanss!!

The deep relaxation as the warm mineral waters soothed away our aches and pains (relaxing IS hard work!) kept us doing the three-pool-drift circuit for hours. HOT BLUE? Too COOL!

COOL BLUE rating: 

Daly Head, Southern Yorke Peninsula, South Australia

3. Wild Blue Yonder at Daly Heads

This autumn day down the other end of the country at the southern extremity of South Australia's SouthernYorke Peninsula had created a symphony of stunning scenery – blue haze, blue sea; row after row of blue swirling breakers, blue, blue sky.

Yes, the staggering view that inspired TheMagnificent Emptiness stretched out before us into the wild blue yonder. The impressive blue array looked (and felt – with the autumn wind-chill factor) pretty COOL from our vantage point atop the wooden staircase plunging down the cliff to the beach below ...

(NOT ME) Hang gliding at Daly Head, Southern Yorke Peninsula, South Australia

But how much more COOL to see that marvellous blue expanse from above?

COOL BLUE rating: 

The BLUE Grampians rising above the Canola fields, Victoria

4. Blue MOUNTAINS … the Grampians

Away from the blue drawcard of Australia's coastline, the mighty Grampians rise above the bakery-dotted landscape of country Victoria, their astonishing BLUE silhouette visible for miles.

And here in this mountainous region, cool means COOL! Signs at the base of the Mt William climb warn that snow may fall at any time of year on its 1167 metre summit!! As Pilchard and his family found out one long-ago fairly recent childhood December (the height of the Southern Hemisphere summer) when they built their first and only a snowman.

Lake Bellfield and Halls Gap from Lake Wartook Lookout, Grampians, Victoria

Like most Aussie mountain ranges, the sun warms and shines through the evaporating oil from the gum trees, causing a blue haze over the peaks, lakes and other geographic formations my wasted years at school mean I'm unable to name. Nameless or not, however, the haze contributes to the staggering BLUE views from the many lookouts dotted throughout the ranges.

COOL BLUE rating: 

Just a tiny part of Lake Argyle, via Kununurra, Western Australia

5. Blue LAKE … Lake Argyle

A drowned Kimberley mountain range, home of the pioneering Duracks, one of Australia's most impressive engineering feats and the biggest, bluest lake it's been my pleasure to view all contribute to the cool BLUE appeal of magical Lake Argyle!

A cruise in the early morning calm of this gob-smackingly, mind-bogglingly enormous 10,763 gigalitre lake covering 1000 km² and 21 times bigger than Sydney Harbour is so full of outstanding landscapes I almost forgot to take photos. ALMOST!

If this is the Western Australian wilderness, then bring it on!

Infinity Pool at Lake Argyle Resort, Western Australia

The presence of permanent water after the Ord River Dam was completed in 1972 turned the once-arid land downstream into an agricultural oasis. But the dam itself remains a haven for the birds and wildlife that inhabit the islands – now all that's left of the mountain range beneath its waters.

And on a clear day, the blue upon blue upon blue of the lake, the sky and the infinity pool at the resort is just too COOL for words ...

COOL BLUE rating: 

But what's Cool Blue without RED? The BLUE blue waters of Broome's Roebuck Bay are often tinged with the RED Pindan of the earth beneath …

So what better vision to take us from COOL BLUE into RED HOT??

Red Tide at Broome, Western Australia

But … not here!

You'll have to go into the RED zone over at Annabel Candy' travel blog Get In the Hot Spot if you want to see my five favourite RED HOT AussieOutback Places!
 

Then let me know: IS blue REALLY the new red??!!

AND ... for more wonderful travel shots from around the world, visit the Budget Travellers Sandbox for Travel Photo Thursday!

Loving these COOOOOOOL Blues?  Own your own piece of Cool Blue OZ!  Click HERE to visit my CafePress shop for exclusive Aussie products!