Pink river

This is Lake Retba in Senegal and is actually pink. Don’t be alarmed! This not caused by dying flamingos, as you might initially presume. The actual cause is the high concentration of salt in the water (Up to 40%) which created a high concentration of “dunaliella salina”, a salt eating bacteria, which turns pink.

The salt is harvested and sold locally. People can easily float on Lake Retba due to the high concentration of salt. If you want to visit this spectacular place, you should know that the color is more vivid during the dry season, between November and June. In the other half of the year, rain spoils the effect and you might be disappointed coming from far away to see this.

The lake is situated just a couple of meters away from the Atlantic Ocean, from which is separated by a narrow strip of dunes.