A Visit to the Pink Lake

We were invited to visit the pink lake by the organization that helped find us our internship. Before we left, we had an appointment at the agency Syto (name of the agency in question). All the volunteers gathered outside, under a tree and we drank... water, before leaving. It was nice to get to know everyone, there were Finnish, Norwegian, Belgian, French, English... I empahsised "water" because we were in a Muslim country. They don't drink alcohol.

So we left for Dakar on the minibus. At the end of the first road, we were stopped by a corrupt police officer. He refused to let us pass, without saying why.... so we had to wait on the minibus for a good quarter of an hour as the driver spoke with him. Finally, exasperated, we tipped him so that he would leave us alone. In hindsight I think that the bus should have just carried on... but I would not like to find myself in prison in Dakar! I think we drove for an hour before arriving at the pink lake. It is called this, as its name indicates, because it is pink. You can see it in this picture:

This colour is due to the fact that the water is very salty. If you take a dip in it you'll float. At the time we were there it was a little cold to swim in, although we were in shorts and t-shirts (it was February). People were working there harvesting the salt. Here is a picture that shows the salt being harvested.

So it's salt pans, sort of. The people there were very friendly; we could watch them working and one of them explained the process of salt harvesting. What is sad is that they harvest it on such a large scale that one day the lake will no longer be this colour. In the meantime many tourists will get to see it and it is a very popular attraction near Dakar. It was very windy that day but it was good anyway and it was a very pleasant afternoon, especially as we were all a little group. Then we visited another city on the way back but I have forgotten the name.

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