In Senegal there is Lake Retba, a gigantic salt lake whose waters are bright pink due to the presence of a bacterium
In Senegal, in the heart of Africa, there is a spectacle of nature: the pink lake of Retba. Located on the Cape Verde peninsula, 30 kilometers from Dakar, it represents one of the natural oddities most admired by tourists from all over the world. Lake Retba it covers an area of 3 square kilometers and is surrounded by gigantic dunes.
The waters are an intense pink, which leaves you speechless. According to experts, the color is caused by the presence of Desulfohalobium retbaense, a particular halophilic bacterium, which populates areas with a high salinity rate. The bacterium produces the characteristic pink colour, which changes depending on the light, and is not dangerous for humans. For this reason it is possible to swim in Lake Retba, where, once immersed, you will float. In fact, its waters have a higher concentration of salt even than that of the Dead Sea.
Even in the periods of drought the lake shows itself in all its beauty, the salt in fact counteracts the evaporation of the water and the colour, in periods of great heat, becomes even more intense. The best time to visit the lake is from November to June, when the color of the water becomes even stronger and amazing. However, the shade also varies during the day, going from pink to purple, based on the intensity of the light.
Walking on its banks, you can admire them the mountains of white salt and the golden dunes, populated by splendid shells. Lake Retba is not only one of the most breathtaking places on Earth, but also a very important source of income for indigenous populations. Here, between the Seventies and Eighties, it began the extraction of rock salt and even today the workers immerse themselves in the water and remove the salt present at the bottom using sticks, then push the blocks to the shore, where the women leave them to dry.
