The best time to visit Lake Retba is during the dry season, which lasts from November to June, when increased exposure to the sun causes the bacteria to produce a vivid red pigment.
The lake is becoming a more popular tourist destination and the number of accommodations near the lake is increasing. After that, I put the sticks in place and start piling the salt around those sticks. It is estimated 1, people work around this lake -- men and women who collect 24, tons of salt each year.
There are also some Senegalese," Moussa said. It is mainly men who work as harvesters, filling their baskets with salt before heaving it over their heads into their boats. By the time Fame paddles back, his year-old wife, Mariame, is onshore, awaiting his return to carry the salt from boat to land. Fame makes 60 cents for each bucket of salt he collects. His wife earns five cents for every bucket she transports. In the midday heat, men and women move between piles of salt -- transporting, drying and trading the mineral.
While most of Fame's salt will be sold on, he has kept some for his family back in Mali in the hopes that one day, he can share it with his father, who also used to be a salt harvester on Lake Retba. Read: All Africa in one country. More: Souks, sea and surf. Print Email More sharing Reddit. Lake Retba, in Senegal, is known as the "Pink Lake.
Piles of salt drying on the shores of Lake Retba. The lake's salt content rivals that of the Dead Sea and the combination of the sun and salt-loving micro-algae has given the water its color. Senegalese men such as year-old Moussa Fame collect salt from the lake to earn a living.
Fame uses a wooden boat called a "pirogue" -- anything made of metal would rust immediately. He works chest-high in the lake, for seven hours a day. Fame's year-old wife Mariame carries the salt from boat to land.
She earns five cents for every bucket she transports; he earns 60 cents for every bucket he harvests. Lake Retba. The colour is particularly visible during the dry season. They produce a red pigment that absorbs and uses the energy of the sunlight to create more energy, turning the water pink," said Michael Danson, an expert in bacteria from Britain's Bath University. Since the s, local residents have been mining Lake Retba for its salt, which they use mainly to preserve fish.
Waist-deep in water, the men scrape the bottom of the lake to harvest this universally useful mineral, which they collect in baskets in their wooden canoes. The salt is then taken back to the shore where it is sectioned into small mounds.
In order to protect their skin from extreme salinity of the water, the workers rub their skin with shea butter, produced from shea nuts obtained from the shea nut tree. Lakes like Retba and the Dead Sea, which have high salt content, were once thought to be incompatible with life. Lake Retba is well known for having been the end-point of the famed Dakar Rally, which has since been relocated to South America. Visual Stories Right arrow.
This is what gives the lake its remarkable colour. And is therefore also called Pink Lake. The Pink Lake has mostly gained its fame thanks to social media such as Instagram and Facebook. The colourful photos are liked and shared by tons of people. When you walk around you can see how the locals collect salt from the lake. You can also spot different animals who try to survive in and around the lake.
0コメント