Adventures with Angela: Lac Rose

After a somewhat quiet weekend in Dakar, on Monday we headed north out of Dakar for a few days out of the capital.

Lac Rose (Pink Lake) water

We started out about 10am and headed to Lac Rose, which is named as such because of its naturally occurring color. Lac Rose is one of the saltiest lakes in the world, with the salt content almost twice that of the Red Sea. There’s only one other lake in the world like it and it’s in Australia. The reason it’s so salty is because it’s only separated from the Atlantic Ocean by about 1 kilometer of sand dunes. The water in the lake comes through the sand dunes from the ocean. There’s a specific algae, Dunaliella salina, that thrives in salt water and has a red pigment to it when it’s absorbing light. In order for it to be really pink it needs, sunshine, a bit of wind (to move the water around so the sunshine hits more of it), and of course the salt to encourage the growth of the algae.

 Our guide told us the lake was only recently (as in the early-mid 1900s) “discovered” by locals. This is because it was mostly covered with vegetation, and the people group in that area were mostly nomadic shepherds. They didn’t know about the water underneath the vegetation because it didn’t matter, their animals couldn’t drink it! It is too salty to hold any fish, so it really didn’t serve any purpose for the people groups in that area until it was discovered by a shepherd whose animals wouldn’t drink it! Eventually, they realized they could harvest salt.

The harvesting of the salt is open to anyone who wishes to do it. It is considered an “artisan” activity and therefore unregulated by the government. There are no limitations on who can come harvest, everyone is welcome. The unofficial rules are simple: no fighting, no stealing, no cheating. Each harvester has their own pile of salt that is labeled. It seems that the amount of salt in the lake is unlimited, at least for now, so there aren’t limitations on who can come. People come from all over Africa to harvest. Our guide told us that men will come harvest salt for a couple of years to save a lot of money up before returning home. I think what limits the amount of people on the lake is the amount of pirogues available for doing the harvesting, as well as men willing to do the harvesting. It’s really hard work! First, they can’t usually do it more than a few times per week (every-other day) because, even though they cover themselves with Shea Butter to protect their skin from the salt, it’s still harsh working conditions. Second, the harvesters are not the only part of the equation, it’s a 3-part system. You have the guy who owns the pirogue, the harvester, and the woman (or women) who empties the pirogue. The amount of salt that is harvested is split between the three participants.

At first I thought it was a bit much for the owner of the boat to get the same share as the two people who did the hard work of harvesting the salt from the water and then removing it from the boat, but then we learned that a pirogue can only last about 6 months on the lake because of the salt content. Pirogues are expensive, so it makes sense that if it has to be replaced twice a year, the owner would need that portion of the salt harvest.

The men who harvest use 3 things to do so: a wooden pole with a flat blade on the end of it (similar to a shovel), a basket, and the pirogue. The first thing they do is use the pole to break up the salt at their feet. Then they put the basket down and use their feet to put the salt into it before pulling it up and dumping the salt into the pirogue. The salt looks fairly disgusting as it is pulled out of the water with a blackish-gray tint to it. While it’s in the boat, the water filters out of it and it already starts getting lighter in color. Each pirogue can carry about a ton of salt. If they work well and at a steady pace, they can fill 3 pirogues a day. That means one man is breaking up and pulling out 6 thousand pounds of salt a day.

 This also means that 3 tons of salt is being removed from the pirogues by women and put in piles on the beaches of the lake. The piles of salt sit in the sun so they can dry, which makes the salt its natural white color. The women are responsible for selling the salt as well. The market for the salt is mainly to the fisherman because the Senegalese smoke/dry their fish with salt from Lac Rose. We can also buy salt at a very reasonable price from the ladies on sight, which both Angela and I did.

We learned all of this while floating around the lake in a pirogue. The lake wasn’t very pink because we didn’t have enough of all the necessary elements:
Sunshine: the air wasn’t super clear, so we didn’t have direct sunlight. This time of year the harmattan winds are kicking up
a lot of sand and dust into the air, so it was hazy that day.

A bit of wind (to move the water around so the sunshine hits more of it): If we had had wind, it wouldn’t have been as hazy…

Salt: This is an interesting part of what we learned: The Lake is rarely visibly pink anymore, at least not the way it used to be. Why is that? Because the salt is being harvested at a fairly rapid rate, so there isn’t as much of it to encourage the growth of the algae.

After our educational ride around the lake, we headed over to the area where the restaurant and beach are located, which is on the other side of the lake from where the salt piles were. We snagged some chairs and got ready to go in the lake. We couldn’t really swim in the lake because of the salt content, which just made us float.

Angela floating in the lake

And, while the salt water is good for skin, it’s not advisable to spend more than 15 minutes in the water, so we definitely didn’t put our face or hair in the water! It’s an interesting sensation to be in water with that high of a salt content, but I wouldn’t say it’s particularly comfortable. This is especially true if you have any sort of scrapes, cuts, or even if you’ve recently shaved at all. I didn’t know I had some scrapes on my leg until I went in, but it was obvious once I got in the water! I didn’t last longer than a few minutes. It also has a very particular smell to it that isn’t pleasant. Once we got out of the saltwater, we went over to the area they have set up for rinsing off because it’s not good to leave salt residue on the skin. Once we were done with the actual lake, we rested in the hammocks and had lunch, killing time before we embarked on the next leg of our adventures: a drive up the coast to the Lompoul desert, which is the subject of my next blog!

Hi from Lac Rose!