Lake Retba or The Pink Lake
The Pink Lake (French: Lac Rose, officially: Lac Retba) is a salt lake located 25 km from the capital Dakar of Senegal. Lake Retba or Pink Lake is well known as one of the most salty lakes in the world. The pink color of the water is due to a type of algae.
It is separated from the Atlantic by dunes. The area in which the lake is located only became known when the finish line of the Paris-Dakar rally was at this place.
The lake is a true wonder of nature because the water contains a very large amount of salt (ten times more than the normal salt content of the sea).
It owes its name to the color of the water, which is rose-like to mauve already according to the time of day. This is due to the fact that the high salt concentration breaks the light differently and the presence of red plankton and microbacteria.
Because of the high salt concentration (300-480 g / l) virtually no life in the water is possible and bathers continue floating in the water like in the Dead Sea. The lake is three meters deep, one and a half meters of salt and one and a half meters of water. The water flows underground from the ocean under the dunes so that it is purified.
The lake has an area of 3 km². On the lake is also a restaurant located where you can eat a simple meal such as chicken with fries. Be careful with the spicy sauce “vas-y-molo”, this is very punishment !!
After floating on the very warm salt water, keep some coins ready for the ones you will rinse with a bucket of fresh, fresh spring water.
Rented car
For our trip to Dakar and the pink lake we had rented a car at Esprit Evansion Quads. We were very satisfied with the car (Kia Picanto, new) with air conditioning and were able to get acquainted with the traffic along Senegalese roads.
With our guide, Raymond, we arrived in the city of Dakar in the morning without problems, from where we made the transfer to the island of Goree and in the afternoon we visited the Pink Lake.
It was ideal to combine these two trips and it is important to visit the lake at the right time of the day, without the specific light from the sun you can not see the pink color.
