Pink Lake is the ruby of Senegal. Pink Lake Hillier in Australia. Where pink salt was mined in Russia for Catherine II
Be sure to take a look at pink lake, also known as Retba. The color of the water in it resembles either potassium permanganate or a strawberry cocktail. This incredible natural formation features natural water.
It is not surprising that the lake is considered one of the main ones. What is its secret?
The Rose Water Mystery
The water of Lake Retba is very salty. For most microorganisms, the salt content is lethal, and only one species can survive in it. It is these creatures that give the water its beautiful color. The intensity of the shade can vary from delicate pinkish to dark brown, everything is determined by the angle of incidence of the sun's rays and weather conditions. For example, during the dry season, Pink Lake in Senegal becomes incredibly bright, attracting especially a large number of tourists. The magical hue of the water, combined with the many boats gliding along the surface of the lake, creates a completely surreal picture.
Where is it located?
You can look at Pink Lake off the coast of the Atlantic. It is located near Dakar, the capital of the country.
Only thirty kilometers from the city, and you are there. From herself western point the peninsula is also not far away - twenty kilometers to the peninsula Cape Green. The area of the amazing reservoir is small (three square kilometers), and its deepest place is three meters. There is a village on the shore, the workers and merchants of which are fed by the Pink Lake. Photos of this place often illustrate the work of local residents. They stand up to their necks in water and manually scoop salt from the bottom. It's a very hard job, but it pays well. Therefore, flat boats cover the entire coastline daily.
History of Retba
Once there was a lagoon connected to the Atlantic Ocean. The surf brought sand from year to year, and the channel was gradually covered with it. In the 70s, a drought hit these places, after which Retba became shallow, making salt production quite affordable.
The water is gradually returning, and the workers stand in it up to their shoulders, but only twenty years ago the level here was at most waist-deep. The depth of the lake is also increasing because people extract about twenty-five thousand tons of salt, gradually scooping out the bottom. In addition to microorganisms called Dunaliella, which give the water a special shade with their pigment, no other organisms, no fish, no plants live here. The pink lake is even more deadly for all living things than the famous Dead Sea - there is one and a half times more salt here. It is impossible to drown here: dense water keeps objects on the surface. Even boats heavily laden with prey do not sink. It takes three hours of hard work to fill a boat, and each worker must repeat this operation three times a day. To prevent salt of such a concentration from corroding the skin, workers rub themselves with a special oil from the fruits of the tallow tree. Otherwise, painful ulcers will appear on the skin in half an hour. So it is better to watch the lake from the side.
December 27th, 2014
If you try to search the Internet for information or, moreover, photos about Lake Retba Lake in Senegal, and then you want to see a photo of Lake Hillier in Australia, you will be surprised to find that half of the material about these lakes simply intersect. That is, they write about one lake, and photographs of another and vice versa. There you are one of the examples. This is not surprising since both of these lakes are PINK.
Let's try to sort information and photos on these lakes so that they are not confused in the future.
Let's start with a lake in Senegal.
Lake Retba
In the language of the Wolof people, the main ethnic group of Senegal, the lake is called Retba. A water mirror with an area of three square kilometers is located near the Cape Verde peninsula. And this reservoir looks like in a fairy tale about a milky river with jelly banks, only here it’s the other way around: the water is pink, like cranberry jelly, but the shores are white, like milk, or, more precisely, like salt. But let's start, as they say, from the very beginning.
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Many years ago, the lake was a lagoon connected to the Atlantic Ocean by a narrow channel. Gradually ocean waves washed up the sand, which blocked the channel, and the lagoon turned into salt Lake quite deep at first. However, in the 1970s, droughts began in Senegal, and the lake became very shallow. Now its greatest depth does not exceed three meters.
The water in Retba is really bright pink, and the reason for the unique color is that cyanobacteria live in the lake - the oldest microorganisms that appeared in the Earth's biosphere 3.5 billion years ago. But admiration is not only their respectable age. These bacteria are one of the few that can survive in the thick brine that is the water of Pink Lake. The salt concentration here is 380 grams per liter, that is, almost one and a half times higher than in the Dead Sea. Salt lies in a thick layer at the bottom of the lake, and thanks to this, the local population can live almost comfortably - according to African, of course, concepts.
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Flat-bottomed boats are located along the entire coastline. This picture is reminiscent of the streets of our cities with cars parked at the sidewalk, but only every boat owner here has a place historically assigned to him, which no one dares to take. Boats here are not a luxury and, in general, not even a means of transportation. They are necessary in order to extract salt. Every year, by joint efforts, people raise about twenty-five thousand tons of salt from the bottom, thereby deepening the lake. If earlier it was possible to ford it, now such walks, “like on land”, are practically impossible.
Every morning here begins with the fact that the local men come out of their houses and, stretching, head to the lake.
However, to call these buildings houses can only be a stretch. Yes, and shacks, too, they are hardly worth calling. These are original huts built from improvised means - reed stalks, car tires, plastic bags ... And visitors from neighboring countries(in our opinion, migrant workers). These people leave their native lands and rush to Senegal, because here, in the extraction of salt, you can earn about ten dollars a day - money, according to local concepts, is rather big, in their homeland - in Guinea, Mali, Gambia - they are talking about such a salary could not have dreamed. However, such happiness does not smile at them for too long, because no one can stand here for more than three years - salt water gradually corrodes the skin, and the person is covered with painful ulcers.
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So, in the early morning, guest workers head to their punts, untie them and go out to the lake expanses. Moving away from the coast, they drop anchor and lubricate the skin with the so-called Chinese vegetable oil, which is extracted from the fruits of the tallow tree. If this simple procedure is neglected, then the concentrated saline solution splashing over the side of the boat will corrode the skin almost to the bones in just half an hour.
Jumping over the side of the boat, the miners first with a special device, like a crowbar, loosen the salt that covers the bottom of the lake in a dense layer, and then fill the basket with it under water. The next step is to lift the basket and transfer its contents to the boat, after allowing the water to drain. The boat can hold up to 500 kilograms of salt. From the outside it seems surprising that a small boat with such a load does not sink. However, in order to flood a boat in the waters of the lake or drown yourself, you have to try very hard - a concentrated solution keeps both the loaded punt and the person afloat.
To earn the coveted ten dollars, the worker must deliver a boat filled with salt three times during the day. By the way, in order to load 500 kilograms of salt into the boat, experienced worker it takes at least three hours. Total: nine hours up to the shoulders in brine ...
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But then the miners bring heavy punts to the shore, and then their wives and daughters get down to business. The women's task is to shift the salt from the boat into basins, take it a little further from the water and pour it out there to dry. And a basin filled with salt, by the way, weighs at least 25 kilograms ...
After the salt dries, pebbles and litter are selected from it, and then poured into heaps that make the coast of Retba look like alien landscape. In such heaps, salt can lie for several years until a wholesale buyer is found for it. During this time, which at first had a gray color, under the rays of the sun it becomes dazzling white.
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No citizen of Senegal will stoop to become a salt miner. This is hard and thankless work. Therefore, local residents buy it in bulk and resell it to other African or European countries. And they also play the role of guides with pleasure, bringing tourists to an amazing lake with pink, like jelly, water and white milky, that is, salt, shores.
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Lake Retba is located less than an hour's drive from the capital of Senegal (40 km), on the northwestern coast of the country of Grand Côte, in close proximity to the shores of the Atlantic. It is most convenient to arrive here within the framework of organized excursion is a popular attraction and joining the tour is easy.
If you wish to arrive at the lake on your own, it makes sense to rent a car with a driver. The most unpretentious tourists can use the minibus service. And if you want to stay here for a few days, a considerable number of hotels are at your service. resort area Grand Cat.
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Retba separated from Atlantic Ocean just a strip of low dunes, and the underground salty waters of the Atlantic generously feed this reservoir, from which there is no outflow of water. So for thousands of years, the concentration of salt has increased here - and today Lake Retba, in terms of salinity in the dry period from November to June, easily “does” the hyped Dead Sea: the salt content in the water reaches 40%. By the way, the length of the lake is about 2 km, and the depth is no more than 3 meters.
The fantastic pink hue of the water is the result of the vital activity of a special kind of cyanobacteria that feed on salt. These bacteria produce a pink pigment in order to "attract" a certain spectrum of solar radiation necessary for their life. Well, then the pink pigment saturates the water in the Retba and colors its surface with amazing shades.
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The concentration of salt in Retba is so high that you can’t lie here with a book in your hands on the immovable surface of the lake - the mineral very soon begins to corrode the skin. As for the salt miners, they rub their bodies with shea butter, which prevents the insidious mineral from coming into contact with the surface of the skin.
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And on the other side of the Retba, facing the Atlantic, stretches a ridge of low graceful dunes. In a word, the landscapes here are really mesmerizing: snow-white mountains salt, bright pink water surface and golden sand of the Green Peninsula of Senegal.
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This lake is also often called Lac Rose (Lac Rose) .
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Rubbing their bodies with a special oil that protects against the damaging effects of incredibly salty water that corrodes the skin, salt miners spend the whole day on the lake. They dive to the bottom, blindly fill the baskets with salt, then unload it into the boat and take it to the shore. There, the catch is piled in heaps, allowed to dry, then washed and sorted, cleared of silt and sand. Burning out in the sun, the salt from the Pink Lake becomes snow-white, and this is what they bring for sale.
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But the few tourists who come to admire amazing lake with "bloody" water, they decide to plunge into the colored depths of Lac Rose. They prefer to observe from the sidelines and take a lot of pictures.
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Now consider a more effective appearance lake Hillier (Lake Hillier) in Australia.
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On the edge of Middle Island is a mysterious pink lake surrounded by legends. From above, the shiny surface of the pink Lake Hillier resembles icing on an oblong cake. This lake lends unexpected hues to a wooded corner of the Middle Island. The middle island is one of 100 small islands that make up the Research archipelago, stretching along south coast Western Australia. The most mysterious natural attraction in Australia is Lake Hillier and its pink water.
Photo 2. 
A shallow salt lake, only about 600 m wide. An even greater impression of an unearthly landscape is given to the lake by a white ribbon around it. The lake is surrounded on all sides by bright green eucalyptus trees, separated from the ocean only by a narrow strip of white sand dunes.
Until the middle of the 20th century, people in explaining this phenomenon were content with the assumption that special bacteria live in the water of the lake. In 1950, the pink color of the lake was studied by a group of scientists who hoped to find seaweed in the salt water of the lake - Red algae (Dunaliella salina). In very salty water, these algae secrete a red pigment that turns other Australian lakes pink, such as on the mainland, near Esperance, located lake. A water sample taken from Lake Hillier did not find any traces of algae, so the color of the lake is still a mystery.
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The first mention of a “pink” lake on Sredny Island dates back to 1802, when the British navigator and hydrographer Matthew Flinders stopped here on his way to Sydney, who became the discoverer of the pink lake.
Over the next few decades, the island was a kind of transit point for whalers, but at the beginning of the 20th century, the attention of visitors finally turned to the miracle of nature, albeit from a very materialistic point of view - they began to mine salt here. However, the business did not flourish for long. Even taking into account the use of special equipment instead of traditional manual labor, the profit was not enough to grow the business, and the strange color of the water did not particularly attract the consumer. Six years later, entrepreneurs curtailed the project, and since then Hiller has attracted only curious tourists and occasionally scientists.
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In general, Lake Hillier is not the only pink lake even in Australia, not to mention bodies of similar coloring in other parts of the world. There are pink lakes on almost all continents - here are Retba in Senegal, and Torrevieja in Spain, and the Canadian Dusty Lake, and Masazir in Azerbaijan, and Koyashskoye Lake in the Crimea, and many others. But of all of them, the Australian Lake Hillier is the only one whose mystery has not yet been solved. After all, usually pink color is given to water either by special algae, or by cyanobacteria, or by specific chemicals in the composition of the forming rocks. And what “paints” Lake Hiller in such a bright color? Scientists are not yet able to answer this question. The results of studies conducted in 1950 showed the complete absence of any flowery microorganisms - both at the bottom of the reservoir and in the composition of the water.
Swimming in this wonderful lake, of course, is possible - but it happens at your own risk. After all, there are no spa baths, which are so common, for example, on the Dead Sea, here.
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There was a local legend about a sailor who ended up on the island after a shipwreck. Exhausted and wounded, he offered the devil to sell his soul so that he would save him from this nightmare. At the same moment, a man appeared on the shore of the lake, who poured into him a jug of blood and a jug of milk. Then he said: "Swim, and you will not feel hunger and pain." He did so, but acquired such strange abilities that the pirates who saved him, in the end, got scared and threw him back into the sea.
Let me remind you that studies of the water of the lake by scientists have not yielded any results. They did not find any bacteria or minerals capable of coloring the water pink.
Salt dissolved in lake water can be used as food. Therefore, for some time there were salt mines. In addition to nutritional benefits, this salt has medicinal properties, so there is still some truth in the legend of the sailor.
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Lake Hillier is only 600 meters wide. From all sides, the reservoir is surrounded by tall bright green eucalyptus trees, which contrast sharply with the pink water of the lake. The lake is located on the very edge of the island, and only a narrow strip of land, consisting mainly of sand dunes, separates it from the ocean. From a bird's eye view, the lake looks most impressive. The fact is that the shores of the lake are bordered by a thin layer of white salt, so from above it seems that the “pink spot” seems to be framed!
Thousands of tourists visit the island every year. They all want to see unusual lake which looks so great against the backdrop of evergreen eucalyptus trees!
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In former times, Lake Retba was a lagoon that was connected to the ocean by a narrow channel. But the Atlantic surf, gradually washing up the sand, covered the channel, and the lagoon turned into a rather deep salt lake. In the 1970s, a period of drought began in Senegal, as a result of which the reservoir became very shallow.
It was then that Lake Retba acquired its unusual shade. The reason for the unique color of the water is that cyanobacteria live in the lake - the oldest microorganisms that appeared on Earth 3.5 billion years ago. Surprisingly, apart from them, there is no other organic life in this saturated saline solution. The concentration of salt in Lake Retba is almost 1.5 times higher than in the Dead Sea - 380 grams per liter. In Pink Lake, like the Dead Sea, it is very difficult to drown. You can safely swim on the surface of the water while reading a book or newspaper.
The color of the water of the Senegalese lake can change its shade from light pink to brown. The saturation of the color depends on the time of day, on cloudiness, and especially on the wind, since when strong wind the cyanobacterium is activated and produces more of an enzyme that turns the water pink.
An unusual lake lies to the northeast of the Cape Zeleny peninsula, at the extreme southern tip of which is the city of Dakar. Get to international Airport Dakar is possible only with a transfer, there are no direct flights from Russia and Ukraine. Flight options include Iberia via Madrid, Lufthansa via Frankfurt, Air France via Paris, Alitalia via Milan and North African carriers Royal Air Maroc via Casablanca, Air Algerie via Algiers and Tunisair via Tunisia.
Two-kilometer coastline Lake Retba is densely strewn with flat-bottomed boats, very similar to Russian ones. But they don’t fish on them, they don’t go to the neighboring village and they don’t carry hay. On Pink Lake, boats serve only to extract salt.
It is today that people extract salt, standing up to their necks in water - 20 years ago they moved along the lake without swimming facilities- the water level in it reached the waist. And due to the extraction of a huge amount of salt (about 25 thousand tons per year), the depth of the lake is rapidly increasing.
Every morning, dozens of local men, taking the necessary equipment, swim to the middle of the lake and climb into very salty water. They break the salt deposits at the bottom of the reservoir with special hooks, and then they scoop up the salt with shovels and load it into boats. A high concentration of saline solution can corrode the skin in just a few tens of minutes, as a result of which hard-healing ulcers form on the body. To prevent this, before getting into the boat, the miners rub themselves with shea butter, which is extracted from the fruits of the tallow tree.
When a pirogue full of salt lands on the shore, the men's mission ends there - the salt from the boats is unloaded by the women. They carry basins on their heads loaded with wet salt, weighing more than 25 kg, and pour it out on the shore of the lake to dry. Initially, the salt extracted from the reservoir has a dark gray color, but under the influence of tropical sunlight, it gradually begins to turn white. In each pile of salt is a plate on which the number of the owner is indicated. Here she can wait a year or two for wholesale buyers.
Salt, which is mined here, is exported to African countries and, as an exotic product, even to Europe. Basically, the inhabitants of Senegal are content with salt, which they received from sea water. But sometimes in local restaurants they serve fish baked in salt from Lake Retba.
The workers live here, on the shores of Pink Lake, in a small village, in shacks built from improvised materials: polyethylene film, reeds, sheet iron and old car tires. They come here to work from neighboring countries in Africa and from the Senegalese provinces, but stay for no more than a few years because of the difficult working conditions. However, by the standards of this country, they make good money.
Due to the active extraction of salt, Lake Retba is getting shallower every year. Over the past ten years, the area of the Senegalese lake has decreased by almost three times, and if measures are not taken in the near future to protect this natural object, it may disappear from the face of the earth forever.
The ancient lands of the Black Continent contain a lot of natural wonders, one of which is a fantastic lake, located near the Green Cape. This is Retba - the most interesting landmark of Senegal and one of the most colorful places on the planet.
colorful in literally this word! The waters of the Pink Lake, as Retba sounds in the dialect of the Wolof ethnic group, shimmer under the sultry African sun with a whole palette of pink colors - from soft crimson to carmine-scarlet. Particularly bizarre is the view of the reservoir from a bird's eye view - a strawberry spot framed by the emerald greenery of the jungle - a truly bewitching landscape!
Pink Lake - a bright point on the map of Africa
An amazing reservoir is located in the Western part of the African continent, just thirty kilometers from the main city of Senegal - Dakar. A narrow strip of sand dunes separates Pink Lake from the mighty waters of the Atlantic. The two-kilometer coastline of Retba is a truly picturesque canvas: a string of small boats on the purple surface of the water, the finest golden sand and snow-white mounds of salt pyramids. The French-speaking population of the country gave the lake another name - Lac Ros.
History of the Magic Lake
It may surprise you, but Retba was not always a lake. Once the reservoir was part of the Atlantic Ocean, a cozy lagoon, separated from big water narrow channel. Ocean surf and wind washed up the sand for centuries until the channel completely disappeared, forming a salt lake with an area of \u200b\u200bno more than three square kilometers.
Why is it this color? Until the 70s of the last century, Retba did not stand out among ordinary salt lakes. But the worst drought in the history of Senegal caused the lake to become shallow, opening access to the deepest salt deposits at the bottom of the reservoir. In those years, an extraordinary rainbow phenomenon appeared.
The Rose Water Mystery
How can we explain the extraordinary shade of Lac-Rose? Everything is very simple, there is nothing mystical and supernatural.
The amazing purple color of the water is due to myriads of microscopic organisms - cyanobacteria of the genus Dunaliellasalina, which have chosen Retba as their habitat.
It is the pigmentation of these ancient living creatures that tints the lake with the delightful color of flamingos and dawn. Also, the abundance of fossil deposits of minerals and chlorine on the coast affects the coral shade of water. The color shade of the lake is very heterogeneous and can vary depending on various factors: the angle of incidence of sunlight on the lake surface, cloudiness and dry weather. The brightest and richest pink color is typical for the drought season in Senegal - from May to November.
One of the saltiest bodies of water in the world
Dunaliellasalina is the only form of organic life that can exist in the concentrated brine of Lake Retba. The salt content in Lac Ros is more than 380 grams per liter, which is one and a half times higher than the specifications Dead Sea. The increased density of water facilitates swimming and prevents drowning, however, staying in rose waters for more than ten minutes is fraught with severe burns and non-healing ulcers on the surface of the skin.
Labor-intensive salt extraction
The richest salt deposits are the main source of income local population. On the shores of Pink Lake, there is a small village of the Wolof people, whose inhabitants are completely engaged in the extraction of salt. This is a very difficult job - male miners manually, standing shoulder-deep in water, scoop salt crystals from the lake bottom. In order to protect themselves from the corrosive solution, the skin is treated with shea butter. At the bottom of the lake, workers first loosen the salt blindly, and then fill bulky baskets with the powder and send it to the shore in boats.
Due to the high density of water, small punt boats are able to hold up to half a ton of cargo, which significantly saves time on transportation. On the shore, women and girls are involved in the work process - the collected salt is dragged ashore, washed from dirt and silt and left to dry. In the future, salt from the bottom of Lac Ros goes to dealers and is used mainly for preserving seafood, and in some restaurants in Europe it is served as an exotic product.
Not only local residents are employed in salt mining, men from neighboring countries of the continent come here to earn money. The modest pay of $9 for a hard day's work is considered acceptable in Africa. These “guest workers” build their temporary dwellings from improvised material right on the banks of the Retba. Every year, up to 25 thousand tons of salt are taken out from the bottom of the pink lake, which leads to a rapid deepening of the reservoir - earlier the water in Lac Ross reached only the waist, and it was possible to walk along it.
Interesting information for travelers
annually to rose water Retby attracts thousands of tourists who want to see and capture the extraordinary miracle of nature with their own eyes. For those who are just about to discover Senegal and its notable places, some of the nuances of traveling around the lake will be useful:
- Pink Lake is located just an hour from Dakar. It is best to go to get acquainted with the beauties of Retba as part of an organized excursion route. But you can also get to the place on your own by minibus, or by renting a car. For those wishing to admire the fabulous landscape at sunrise or sunset, there is a chain of small hotels nearby.
- From entertainment - romantic boat rides on the pink surface of the lake, car rides along the picturesque coastline. For a small fee, tourists can get acquainted with all the intricacies of salt mining and try themselves in this difficult business. locals happy to take on fishing all comers.
- During the day, the lake repeatedly changes its shade - from elusive pink and rich purple to brownish cherry with orange notes in color, so it is best to admire the magical landscape several times during the day.
- Along the coast of Lac Rose, not so long ago, the final stage of the famous Paris-Dakar race took place.
- Not far from the pink lake there is an interesting turtle reserve.
Lake Retba - fantastic natural object, which you must visit when traveling through the expanses of hot Africa. The bewitching beauty of the pink surface in the light of day and in the first rays of the awakening sun will not leave indifferent connoisseurs of beauty. Tell us about your impressions of this delightful corner.
