The Dead Sea

Therapy finished yesterday, and I needed a night off from blogging...

So that meant today we had to put into practice some of what we have been learning... It was tough! Daniel was expecting a team of people to descend and there was only us!!! When we said we are going to the Dead Sea his first question was "Who is coming with us?" "Shai or Anat?"

So the next few weeks will be challenging for us, all of us!

Off we set for the Dead Sea, around 80km. Strangely our GPS didn't recognise anything after Jerusalem... I say stangely but I have already explained the GPS system, say no more. So in good old fashioned style we consulted the rental car map! Not too difficult a route to follow.

The approach from the car! The Dead sea is quite far below seaa level, and around it is pure dessert. It was quite hazy but the bluer piece above the dessert is the sea. the coast on the other side is Jordan. We were stopped by the Police not far from here...asking the purpose of our visit!!!

In such a short journey I was amazed by

1. How many cars broke down at the side of the road.
2. How many people were stopped by the Police, and looked like they were receiving tickets.
3. How closely we drove to the West Bank barrier wall, and how gruesome it looked.
4. The number of camels saddled up at the side of the road.
5. How many soldiers we saw. We did cross into the west bank, (this is where the Dead sea is located) And we were stopped by the police and soldiers.

Eventful for an hour and a half trip... we also received a call from Ornit, just as the sirens started, telling us "Don't worry" there is a practice siren, evacuation day today ( Thankfully someone had already warned us) but then she said "Got to go to the shelter" and Paul was like why do we need to too???

That is the West bank with the wall dividing the 2 areas.... after taking this picture there was a check point, where I saw a soldier checking someone's pictures on their camera! I put my camera away for a little while!

Dead sea arrival coincided with lunch, so we took our time just to allow mid day to pass. I am really pleased we had read about the Dead sea and what to expect before hand...

1. You have to pass through what looks like desserted no-man's land.
2. Pay to enter.
3. Hike down to the water... it has receeded so much!
4. Walk across the mud flats...
5. It is pretty ming mong!

Pictures will follow... I used the proper camera today!

However having said all that it was pretty amazing. The mud experience I can take or leave, but the salty, tingly, floaty experience was great. Even Daniel had a relaxing float... the most relaxed I have ever seen him in the water before. He wasn't really impressed by the mud either. In the water you have to be so careful not to drink the water or get it in your eyes so we didn't insist too much on the mud front. Also it is weird but you can't swim on your front for this reason, and if you do your legs just disappear up behind you and the lifeguard tells you off!!! We thought maybe 10 mins in the water and we would be done but an hour later and we were still having fun.
The temperature guage hit 38 degrees there.

Paul has ticked off another life long ambition. He also says I have to write that the Dead sea shrinks down by a metre every year and the beach recedes by 15-20 metres.

A photo opportunity....

Jerusalem tomorrow? Watch this space !