The lake that was supposed to be PINK

Me and some friends decided to take a day of tourism and therefore went for a day-trip to see the famous 'Lac Rose'. A certain type of algae lives in the lake, which produce a red pigment. The colour should be reinforced by sunlight. We had seen some beautiful picture on the internet and it seemed very impressive. So safe to say that we were slightly disappointed when this was what met us:

 
Apparently, the whole sunlight-colour-reinforcement concept means that there will be absolutely no trace of pink what so ever if the sun don't shine bright and has done it during the entire day. And what was the weather like when we chose to stop by? Perfectly cloudy. Disappointed over the so-called pink lake we went for a walk around the lake to see if we would bump into something more exciting. This time we were in luck. We met a couple of dudes with an old, worn-out jeep-kind-of-vehicle. They offered tours around the Dakar Rally area, which happens to be situated right behind Lac Rose. We negotiated a fair price and jumped in. The Dakar Rally has existed since the 1970s and is a huge dessert race starting in Paris and going all the way to this spot in Senegal. Since the conflict broke out in Mauritania in 2008 the final destination of the race has been moved, so now whoever who has a car they are willing to sacrifice for some hours of adrenalin-kicking fun, are free to race around the off-track tracks.

As you can see from the pictures, this car had been sacrificed for this purpose a loooong time ago. I was actually impressed that it only broke down once while we were racing the sand dunes. The guys were used to fixing it and had it up and running in no time. Fear was obviously not a phenomenon they knew of. Sometimes I wondered if they even realised that we had nothing but a small bench to hold onto in the back of the car. Grab on to whatever and do not let go! The initial disappointment turned into a great afternoon of fun and action. Typical weekend in this country. You never know what's awaiting you, but you know it's going to fun!