No, the snow didn't follow us here...it's table salt!
It’s been great enjoying these last few days with Luc and Anita and the kids before they leave for their annual summer vacation. We spent an afternoon at Lac Rose – ‘Rose’ because the high concentration of minerals causes the lake to shimmer pink - but more famous for being the final destination of the annual Paris-Dakar rally.
The water here is actually 10 times saltier than the ocean so it’s also the location of a small-scale salt collecting industry.
The shoreline is bustling with locals and their piles of salt they have harvested from the lake bottom. Since the lake is pretty shallow, people wade up to their waist and scrape the salt off the lake bed and into flat bottomed pirogues (wooden boats). When the canoe is full (ie. Any more and the canoe will sink under the weight), they make their way back to shore and the salt is carried onto the bank in buckets – usually by the women.
Each salt collector builds his own pile of salt – marked either by a number or his initials. The good quality salt is put straight into 25 kg sacks and sold to middlemen from Dakar and the poorer-quality salt gets loaded in bulk and taken elsewhere for processing. It’s hard, nasty work for less than $1 for the 25kg bags of ‘good quality’ salt and even less for the more abundant lower-quality!
The neat thing about the lake is that it’s high salt concentration makes even lead weights buoyant – tried as we did, it was impossible to sink! The swim wasn’t all that pleasant though as the water stunk and the salt stung and left a slimy coating on our skin…we didn’t stay in the water long.
The area also attracts visitors for its miles of beautiful sand dunes that surround the lake. Luc deflated the tires [a little trick he learned to keep from getting stuck in beach sand] and we had a ball 4x4ing around the dunes and enjoyed a picnic supper in what could have been the middle of the dessert.
Oasis in the middle of the dunes
2 comments:
I'm glad you got a little break from the pressures of the south. Looks like you had fun, making sand castles and floating in salt water! Thanks for the info in your previous post about finances. I'll add that to my prayer list and see what we can do.
God bless!
You guys are acting like locals! I never swam in it!
You were near my village, by the way. Next time you go into Dakar, before you get to Bargny-Rufisque, look for the sign to Sendou on your left. Smile, wave, and pray for my family there!
A few tidbits of info for you...in Ouakam, next door to Newscafe, is the best nail salon ever. There was an Ivorian woman who worked miracles on my toes. And while you're having your nails done, JP can enjoy a delish Newscafe club sandwich - heaven!
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