Senegal - The "Lac Rose"



These are a few pictures I would like to share about a place called the "Lac Rose", literally, the pink lake in Senegal, Africa. That lake is close to Dakar, and the dunes where the Paris-Dakar race is ending every year. The lake is in fact getting the pink color because of the very high concentration of salt in the water. The local population, extremely poor (see a next post about Senegal), is collecting the salt from the water, and selling bags of salt at a very low price to get enough to survive. This is an incredibly tough job because the salt is attacking your skin, your eyes, and the consequences are terrible.

I have been shooting most of the shots with a Nikon D200 with a 18-200VR lens, because I needed the flexibility of the range (almost impossible to switch lenses in such an environment (lot of wind, dusty...) and also because I needed the 200mm for "non obtrusive" photography. People don't like photographers over there...

Here are a few pics to give you an idea:

#1 the color of the water

#2 collecting the salt on sticks they put in the water

#3 collecting and carrying the salt

#4 an overview

#5 collecting and sorting

#6 carrying the salt

#7 just for the colors

and just a mile away, in the area between the lake and the sea, they have dunes where they can collect pure water for the agriculture (the dunes are a kind of filter to retain the salt). In the lake, the salt is destroying everything, no lifeform can survive in that water... and then you see this: #8 cultivating...

#9 the dunes - this is just a few hundred yards/meters away, the place where the racers (Paris-Dakar) finish their journey...

Hope you've enjoyed the tour... more coming soon