Lake Retba

We spent much of today at Lake Retba, north of Dakar. This is a saltwater lake, much like the Dead Sea, in that its salt concentration is very high. It is known as Le Lac Rose because of microorganisms in the water that excrete a red dye. Unfortunately, due to heavy flooding two years ago, the water is much diluted and it has temporarily lost its pink hue.
The journey from Dakar was as everyone was heading into the city for work. Very busy and crowded. Apart from the highway, all the roads have speed control bumps every 50 m or so. Sitting in the back of the bus was bumpy. There is so much litter here. Occasionally it has been swept into a pile at the roadside hut this is just left and not cleared away. We didn't see a rubbish bin anywhere. We did see people sweeping the outside of their shops or houses and clearing the sand - pointless since there is sand everywhere!
We watched salt workers 'punting' their boat out to the middle of the lake with long
poles with shovels on the end. They then get into the water and chip away at the salt in the lake bed and shovel it up into the boat. It is left in piles to dry on the lakeside. Salt collection is free you just pay for the use of the boat by giving the owners a portion of the salt collected.
What was billed as a 4x4 drive over the sand dunes turned out to be a journey in one of four trucks holding 8 people facing each other sideways as it bounced it's way over the sand along the Atlantic coast. Being in the front vehicle, we stopped frequently to let the others catch up or to allow one of the trucks to replenish the water in its radiator (this happened 6 times) or to untangle the mess when one truck crashed into another. Alton towers cannot provide the same trepidation and excitement of this bumpy ride, especially as we were being thrown about and had no seat belts, helmets, etc. The ride along the empty beach with the breaking blue waves crashing in on us was most exhilarating.
We were taken to meet the village elder at the Lake. The village consisted of huts a few years ago but now is a lot of unfinished concrete housing, 1 story high so far and thus with no permanent roofing. There is no vegetation just sand and goats. This will be our lasting memory of Senegal, half finished, inhabited, houses for mile after mile after mile. There are no loans here. People build their own housing as and when they can afford to. We saw many small groups of men involved in constructing properties, no large groups.
The Elder proudly showed us his well and had laid on a little bit of entertainment from the village ladies, expecting a donation to village funds.
We had a rustic lunch at the hotel by the Lake before returning to Dakar. We were quite tired, it was very hot and we had used energy being bumped around.Read more