The Dead Sea

The Dead Sea, 408 metres below sea level, is the most famous hyper-saline lake in the world. I found some information from our Lonely Planet Jordan Guide book to explain a little about it:

“The high salinity is due to the fact that the sea has no outlet and the high summer temperatures evaporate the fresh water more quickly than it is replenished. Each year, because of intensive irrigation in the Jordan Valley, the sea shrinks.” The Dead Sea is the deepest and lowest of the saline lakes on earth and is about 9 times saltier than the ocean.

Floating in the Dead Sea is now pretty high up on the list of the coolest experiences we’ve had. It reminded us a little of the mud volcano in Columbia where we had a similar floating experience. Same, same but different.

The first time we went in, we followed the directions of the lifeguards and entered backwards, sat down and voila, we were floating. It didn’t feel scary or worrisome and I knew I would be held up by the water. Amazing!!! It was interesting for me to watch people who did not believe in the buoyancy of the water and had a hard time just sitting back and having faith that everything would be fine.

We were warned that you shouldn’t go in with open sores and you shouldn’t shave in advance. We were all good, or so we thought. I was surprised to discover that I had a very small scrape on my forearm which started stinging and got red shortly after being in the saline water. A little bothersome while I was in, but it seamed to help the healing process as the next time I went in, there was no reaction.

After our third time in the sea, we felt like old pros and we were flipping onto our fronts (easy to flip over but hard on your neck as you have to hold it high so as not to get the salt water in your mouth or eyes), attempting s few swim strokes and putting our legs straight down. This last position was a favourite as we would bicycle our legs in slow motion, imitating the running style of the “6 million dollar man” and “Bionic Woman” while moving slowly through the water. So much fun!

Another part of the Dead Sea experience is spreading mud over your body. The minerals that are in the mud are supposed to be very good for the skin and apparently refreshens, nourishes and rejuvenates your skin. All of the beaches on the Jordanien side have containers of mud on the beach for people to easily experience this quick treatment. We heard from people who were on the Israeli side, that they just scooped mud from the beach, which was not as easy to do.

Finally, I have to apologize to Paul for teasing him about always booking us into high-priced accommodation whenever he handles the accommodation. Although it IS TRUE, in this case we had little choice as, if we wanted to stay on the Dead Sea, there is pretty much only high-end resorts. We could have done a day trip and gone to the public beach for a bit, or got a day pass to a resort but that was not what we wanted. We purposely planned our trip to Jordan with plenty of days so that we could spend a little more time and not feel rushed. We are pretty sure we won’t come to Jordan again, so this felt like a once in a lifetime experience that we wanted to appreciate and relax into.