Lac Rose (Lake Retba) Quad Bike Tour

Lake Retba — known locally as Lac Rose — gets its strawberry-milk colour from a salt-tolerant algae that blooms in the dry season, and the most fun way to take it in is by quad bike. This guided three-hour loop runs you around the lake past the salt harvesters at work, through the surrounding dunes and down to the Atlantic, with a stop on the beach along the way. It's an easy ride suitable for beginners, in small groups of two to eight, and the price includes the quad bike, helmet, your guide and bottled water, run in English or French. The pink is at its most vivid around midday in the dry season, when the sun is high and the salt content peaks. Lying about an hour from central Dakar, it makes an easy, exhilarating half-day out of the city.