Lake Retba(Lac Rose)

A visit to this famous Senegalese tourist destination is very rewarding. You don't only get the opportunity to watch the locals pull salt from the lake, they are also happy to talk to visitors.  For many local people who live in this area, harvesting salt from the lake is their only means of survival. Although, the water is harsh on skin and they often rub local shea butter before taking a deep. The shea butter acts as temporary protection from the "The salt content of Lake Retba or Lac Rose, as it's locally known, rivals that of the Dead Sea -- exceeding 40% salinity in some parts -- and it is a combination of the sun and a salt-loving micro-algae, dunaliella salina, which has turned the water a brilliant shade of strawberry pink" CNN. The Lake is only pink during the month of January and February -it is the time when the country experiences very hot weather condition.

A picture of a  man pulling salt.

This video is in English

                                                   Video for my French Readers

      Salts are dried on the shore side of the lake

      Men and women work night and day pulling salt from the lake.