Here's a useless bit of trivia for you. The Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth at 391 metres below sea level, and it's salt water content sits at around 34%, making it incredibly bouyant. So much so that you can literally float on top of the water with pretty much zero effort. This narrow body of water also happens to seperate Jordan from Israel (or Occupied Palestine, depending on your viewpoint), and in particular that little trouble spot you hear about on the news fairly often, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. We could see it from where we were, but it was as close as we were going to get.
We stopped here on our way south from Amman for a few hours the other morning. From time to time, the tour company Imaginative Traveller likes to pamper its customers, and the spot where we stopped happened to be a 5 star hotel resort with its own private access beach to the Dead Sea, which they booked out for us for the morning. This place was amazing - it had 3 pools, 2 with waterslides, and the other a lap swimming pool, in addition to the sea. And part of the deal was an all-you-can-eat buffet of the most amazing food. And....being the off-season, we had the entire place to ourselves!! Of course, we took full advantage!
The other interesting fact about the dead sea is that its surface is muddy rather than sandy, and in this mud is reputedly a high content of some mineral which is excellent for your skin. So, the thing to do after you're done floating, you grab a fistful of mud and smear it all over your body and let the sun bake it dry, then washing it off afterwards. Mud fights not withstanding, we all participated in the smear campaign, and did those silly poses you see painted buskers doing in shopping arcades. Lots and lots of fun, let me tell you.
Fun over, we had a 4 hour drive to Wadi Musa, the jumping off point for Petra. Snoozing contentedly in the mini-bus as we climbed back above sea level and them up into a mountain range, we were woken by Jodi to show us Wadi Araba ('wadi' means 'valley' in Arabic), a desert valley that stretched for miles upon miles into the far distance. This was, in my words 'wadi awesome!' (at which Jodi was in stitches at my impromptu one-liner) - the colours and shadings of the sand and rock that made up the surface ranged from white to yellow, to red, then blue, and all shades inbetween (from mineral deposits of potassium, sulphur, iron and magnesium, as i was reliably informed by a science geek on our tour). Back in the bus, and back to our snoozing we arrived at Wadi Musa, and were told our hotel had a Turkish Bath facility for those that wanted to continue their pampering. At A$20 for a 90 minute session, i thought 'why the hell not'. My skin has never felt so good!
More in a little bit.
Tony
peace love and happy faces
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