Natural Phenomena : Lake Hillier

Australia's famous pink Lake Hillier is a sight to behold. Discovered in 1802 by a Royal Navy explorer its strawberry milkshake color is awe-inspiring. Lake Hillier is situated in near the coast of Middle Island in the Recherche Archipelago to the south of Western Australia. Exactly what causes the lake in Australia to be pink is up for debate but is probably to do with the microorganisms that make Lake Hillier their home. It's best to view it from the air in any case.

Why is Lake Hillier Pink?  

The exact cause of Lake Hillier's distinctive bubblegum or strawberry milkshake color is not known for sure. Most scientists do agree it has probably something to do with the presence of a specific species of microalgae - Dunaliella Salina. Dunaliella Salina is able to tolerate very high salt concentrations ranging from 0.2% to as much as 35%. These little critters produce the carotenoid pigments, beta-carotene (which are also found in carrots), that are thought to give rise to the bubblegum coloration of the lake's water.  

There are also large amounts of halophilic bacteria and archaea in the salt crusts of the lake that could also be the cause for the lake's interesting appearance. These non-algal microorganisms also produce a similar carotenoid pigment within their cell membranes which is either the main cause or a contributing factor to the lake's overall coloration.  

The Extreme Microbiome Project, part of the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities (ABRF), Metagenomics Research Group (MGRG), has been performed on the lake. The researchers used a metagenomic analysis on the lake to find Dunaliella as well as Salinibacter Ruber, Dechloromonas Aromatica, and a few species of the Archaea. Bacteria and Archaea tend to make up the bulk of the micro-ecology of hypersaline lakes like Hillier. For this reason, the lake's color is thought to be a combination of these factors. Lake Hillier isn't the only pink lake in the world, there is another famous one on the coast of Senegal called Lake Retba. This lake was the finish line for the Dakar Rally road race and is frequently used to harvest salt by local villagers.

Is it Safe to Swim in Lake Hillier?

According to the official site for the pink lake of Australia, it is perfectly safe to swim in the lake. Despite the coloration, the water is clear and will not cause any harm to you or your skin. The algae are completely harmless but drinking hypersaline water is a no-no. Despite this, the lake is very difficult to get to making it nye on impossible for regular tourists to actually visit on the ground. The lake is best appreciated from the air in any case where you can really see its vivid pink color in contrast with surrounding forests and the Indian Ocean. Travelers can, on occasion, be dropped off on Middle Island from helicopter rides and cruise ships but these tend to view the lake from the shore. 

Is Lake Hillier Water Safe to Drink?

Like any salt water, it is not advisable to drink water from Lake Hillier. When you consume salty water it can cause serious damage to your body. High salt content in your bloodstream puts a serious strain on your body's natural ability to stabilize sodium and chloride levels. That's all before we even think about the plethora of microorganisms that inhabit the water. Although most are harmless, there is the potential for ingesting something very unpleasant.

source : https://interestingengineering.com/lake-hillier-australias-pink-lake-and-the-story-behind-it

BAKDES

Hi guys! How are you ? In this post I will tell you about devotional village or commonly called bakdes in my school. Bakdes is my school program where we have to stayed for a few days at the house of local residents to help their daily activities. In this year, Bakdes was held in Cibeureum village, Kertasari sub-district, Bandung on 3rd until 5th of January 2019. Before that, I'm sorry for just posting my bakdes story. Okay, let's start it !

The trip from the school to Cibeureum takes a long time around 3 hours, we used public transportation that has been rented by the school. When arrived at the Cibeureum, all students were collected at the village hall to attend the reception of the village head and and briefing to prepare for stayed at Cibeureum for a few days. After that, all students directed towards home of their adoptive parents. Finally, me, Iryn, Karin, and Fawwazti met our family in Cibeureum. They are Cika, Cika's brother, and their parents. I'm sorry I forgot the name of our parents there because we only called them "mother" and "father". 

On the first day we played with Cika also with her friends there were Fauzia, Muthi, Luthfi, Wika, Windy, and many more. They are very pleasant and also friendly, they were very happy with our presence there. We played to the tea garden and meet crazy people haha. On the way we talked about their daily activities, about their school and many more. In the tea garden we took some photos for memories. Because it was afternoon, and also was raining, plus they had a religious school, we have to go home immediately. Before maghrib, we accompanied Cika's Mother played volleyball and at night the air was really very cold so we just stayed at home for dinner together and helped Cika, Lutfi, and Wika did their homework. That night was a very good sight with good people, finally we go to bed prepared for tomorrow.

Second day. Today can be said to be very busy, we started the day getting up early then made breakfast for Cika's family, even though only corned beef sandwiches we tried to helped and made Cika's family happy. After that, today we will accompany Cika's father to went gardening. But unfortunately Cika decided not to wenr to school and went to garden with us. Really a very long and tiring journey, I couldn't imagine Cika's father have to take the road so far every day. Finally we arrived at the river and played for a while, really a very beautiful sight and refreshing air, we really enjoyed it! After that, we helped harvest the spring onion. Actually it was quite easy, but what's annoyed was a worm! Sorry, I really don't like worms so I can't... after that we walked again to Citarum 0 km, while on the road we took a lots of photos because the scenery was beautiful and the weather was very bright, what a perfect timing! After that we returned home and cleaned ourselves, we ate together with other children who had just returned from school. In the afternoon all students are required to go to the village hall to attend an education and at night we carry out social services for the local community, we gave groceries, decent clothes and books for them. Thesecond day was very tiring but also fun.

There were no activities, we just got ready to go home and enjoy the remaining time with our family at Cibeureum. In the morning we took a walk along with Cika and ate ice cream along the roadside for the last time. Cika asked us to stay longer, but we couldn't. In the afternoon, we began to say goodbye to mother, father, cika and other children, we were very sad and began to cry, they were very happy with us and we were too. It's very happy to meet nice and simple people, lots of lessons we can take while staying with them. Thank you for all, hope we can meet again and hope God protects good people like Cika's family, her friends, and all of Cibeureum's resident. See you..

 

Recommendation Letter

Hello, my name is Widyana. I'm a home teacher from Nisrina Putri Rianto. Nisrina or usually we call Iryn is student from 3 Senior High School. She is sixteen years old now, she is the only child on her family but she loves very much her familiy.

Iryn is a diligent person, diligent is when there are a lot of task and exam at her school but she can do all of the task and prepare for the exam. But she is also an insecure person, she easy feels inferior even though she has great potential far from his friends. She is also a hard worker person, she always totality and wants to give the best, the point is she will really be serious both in doing assignments or other things.

In the class she is an active and pleasant person.  Besides that, her friends really liked Iryn because she is a funny and very nice person.  She always helps her friends who are in trouble. But she can’t to say no to her friend so sometimes she prioritizes the interests of others and sacrifices her own self-interest. Although not too active in various organizations, Iryn is very productive in filling her time in her day.  She also joined the committee at various school events.

In the arts?  Don’t doubt! She is a master in art. Everything will be beautiful and unique in her hand.

Her drawing, her handwriting is very beautiful. Iryn told me that she want to continue her education in the Architecture Planning and Policy Development at the Bandung Institute of Technology, she wanted to hone her skills and explore more knowledge there. She want to be someone who can design some creative buildings and through this rapidly advacing technology she want to design an environmentally friendly building.

With all the abilities and strengths that she have, I highly recommend Iryn to continue her studies in this program. I'm sure Iryn can well take part in this program and I hope she can realize her  dream and benefit for many people. If there any question please contact me to widyanakh@gmail.com , thank you.

Regards,

Mrs. Widyana

Home Teacher