The Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is one of the only bodies of water on the planet where I don’t have to be with the fish.  It is named as such because the water is so salty that nothing can survive in it, but the water also has the pleasant side effect of making people float.  Between this novel sensation and the fact that the Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth (1,269 feet below sea level), it was a must visit during our time in Jordan.

The bottom of the sea is covered in smooth salt.  When swimming you have to be careful not to get any of the water near your eyes or your mouth – it’s painful in the eyes and tastes disgusting.  (I sampled a drop out of curiosity and it’s horrible.  Horrible.)

The floating sensation is incredibly odd.  Once you have walked far enough in to submerge your legs you can pretty much just sit down in the water and everything will buoy up – legs, arms, everything.  I actually had to work my abs pretty hard to keep my midsection underwater so that I could lift my head and look around.  It’s very odd, and impossible not to laugh when you first feel your legs go out from under you.

Here’s John floating in the water.  Note that he is not sitting on anything, just floating.  Behind him you can see Israel on the opposite shore.
I’d never seen date palm trees before, but they are all over the Middle East.  Each tree has so much fruit (its no surprise you can buy dates in bulk around here.)There is no public access to the Dead Sea, so we got a day pass at a beach area where there are two huge pools, a beachfront and showers.  After a little while the salt begins to burn your skin a bit, and the novelty wears off.  Time to shower off the salt and hit the pool!All in all, we spent more time swimming in the pool (it’s far more pleasant.)  But I very much enjoyed the novelty of floating in the Dead Sea.A little fun fact – less than one week before visiting the lowest place on earth, we were in the mountains in Nepal, home to the highest place on earth.  We really hit the extremes this week!