If you once find yourself in West Africa, be sure to take a look at Pink Lake, also known as Retba. The water in it resembles either potassium permanganate or a strawberry smoothie. This incredible natural formation is distinguished by the natural bright pink color of the water.
It is not surprising that the lake is considered one of the main
attractions of Senegal. What is his secret?
The mystery of rose water
The water of Retba Lake is very salty. For most microorganisms, the salt content is lethal, and only one species can survive in it. It is these creatures that give water its beautiful color. The intensity of the shade can vary from gentle pinkish to dark brown, everything is determined by the angle of incidence of sunlight and weather conditions. For example, during the drought season, Pink Lake in Senegal becomes incredibly vibrant, attracting a particularly large number of tourists. The magical shade of water, combined with many boats gliding along the lake surface, creates a completely surreal picture.
Where is it located?
You can look at the Pink Lake off the coast of the Atlantic. It is located near Dakar, the capital of the country.
Only thirty kilometers from the city, and you are there. It is also not far from the westernmost point of the peninsula - twenty kilometers to the Cape Verde peninsula. The area of the amazing reservoir is small (three square kilometers), and its deepest place is three meters. On the shore there is a village whose workers and traders feed precisely Pink Lake. Photos of this place often illustrate the work of local residents. They stand upright in the water and manually draw salt from the bottom. This is very hard work, but it is paid with dignity. Therefore, flat boats daily cover the entire coastline.
Rethb Story
Once there was a lagoon connected to the Atlantic Ocean. Surf applied sand from year to year, and a little by little the channel was filled with it. In the 70s, drought hit the local area, after which Retba became shallow, making the extraction of salt quite affordable.
Water is slowly returning, and workers stand on its shoulders in it, but only twenty years ago, the level here was a maximum to the waist. The depth of the lake also increases because people mine about twenty-five thousand tons of salt, gradually scooping up the bottom. In addition to microorganisms called dunaliella, which give water a special shade with their pigment, neither other organisms, nor fish, nor plants live here. Pink Lake is even more deadly for all living things than the famous Dead Sea - salt is one and a half times more. Impossible to drown here: dense water holds objects on the surface. Even heavily laden boats do not go to the bottom. You can fill the boat in three hours of hard work, and each worker must repeat such an operation three times a day. To prevent salt of this concentration from corroding the skin, workers rubbed with special oil from the fruits of the sebaceous tree. Otherwise, painful ulcers will appear on the skin in half an hour. So it’s better to watch the lake from the outside.