The Dead Sea on your Own
Experience the Dead Sea, the lowest point in the world. Travel with an informative driver to one of
the world’s saltiest bodies of water, a natural health spa that supports no
marine life.
Freely float on the water’s surface with ease, cover your body with its mineral-rich mud before heading back to port. We sail from Ashdod at 5pm.
And this is what we say about it -
Freely float on the water’s surface with ease, cover your body with its mineral-rich mud before heading back to port. We sail from Ashdod at 5pm.
And this is what we say about it -
But remember it's an inland lake and not the sea (and I've never swum in one before!), so the beach is
a mixture of hardened mud and grit and the bottom of the lake has mud pits up
to your knees which can be very disconcerting when you're only up to your ankles and trying to get to a
depth where you can float.
You mustn't swim face down (in case you drown!) or get your face wet. The water really will sting your eyes, they say, and you mustn't drink it. That said, it was quite an experience and one I wouldn't have missed.
We hadn't planned to do an excursion on our second day in Ashdod and our third day in Israel but there wasn't much to do in the port so we decided to see what was on offer. We'd both known about the Dead Sea from childhood and had seen the pictures of the man reading the paper whilst floating so we agreed that we'd have o give it a go!
It was an early start as we had to cross to the other side of the country. The Jordanian border runs through the middle of the Dead Sea from north to south and we could clearly see Jordan on the other side.
We met our guide, Or, who, as has been the case with all the guides, made our journey informative. The Hebrew name for the Dead Sea means Sea of Salt and, at 420m (1378 ft) below sea level, is the lowest place on earth.
The guide gave us a lot of information en route including pointing out a top secret establishment that he said nobody can find anything out about! Probably an atomic weapons facility or perhaps a biological warfare research establishment, both of which UN resolutions forbid Israel to have!
The overriding impression after 3 days and 3 different Israeli guides was that Israel is desperate to be loved. They sit on an ancient crossroads between Europe, Asia and Africa and are surrounded by Arab countries. We joked with one guide about Israel being in the Eurovision Song Contest and in the Champions/Europa Football Leagues when they're not actually in Europe and I could tell that it's part of wanting friends who are as close geographically as possible and which aren't Arab states.
We were given instructions about bathing in the Dead Sea - we would be supplied with towels, don’t wear any jewellery as the salt damages it; at all costs avoid getting salt in your eyes as it's agony; only float on your back in the water; men shouldn't shave for 2-3 days beforehand as your skin will sting; don’t try to swim normally as you will probably drown; make sure you have a mud bath as the minerals are very good for your skin.
We got changed and headed down the steep slope to the water’s edge. The Dead Sea is rapidly evaporating a a rate of 1 metre per year, so buildings which were once on the side of the Sea are now many metres higher up.
Graeme was first to brave the water. The weird thing is that you're walking (and slipping!) on mud, not sand, as we're used to. What makes it more difficult is that the water is not very clear so you have to feel your way and then there is the occasional mud pot to drop into! Anyway Graeme was soon successfully floating in the water. The water's not very deep and it doesn't need to be for you to be able to float. Then it was Elizabeth’s turn.
It was very hot and sunny, so we sheltered under one of the many free umbrellas on the ‘beach’. We could see people sitting in mud pots on the beach and covering themselves in mud, so we both gave that a go as well. It's quite a job to clean the mud off, but our skin felt lovely afterwards. There were very powerful showers on the beach so we cleaned ourselves off, got dressed, had a look in the shops and had an Israeli beer at a very high price in the lowest bar on earth (unless there are any down the mines, that is!)
You mustn't swim face down (in case you drown!) or get your face wet. The water really will sting your eyes, they say, and you mustn't drink it. That said, it was quite an experience and one I wouldn't have missed.
We hadn't planned to do an excursion on our second day in Ashdod and our third day in Israel but there wasn't much to do in the port so we decided to see what was on offer. We'd both known about the Dead Sea from childhood and had seen the pictures of the man reading the paper whilst floating so we agreed that we'd have o give it a go!
It was an early start as we had to cross to the other side of the country. The Jordanian border runs through the middle of the Dead Sea from north to south and we could clearly see Jordan on the other side.
We met our guide, Or, who, as has been the case with all the guides, made our journey informative. The Hebrew name for the Dead Sea means Sea of Salt and, at 420m (1378 ft) below sea level, is the lowest place on earth.
The guide gave us a lot of information en route including pointing out a top secret establishment that he said nobody can find anything out about! Probably an atomic weapons facility or perhaps a biological warfare research establishment, both of which UN resolutions forbid Israel to have!
The overriding impression after 3 days and 3 different Israeli guides was that Israel is desperate to be loved. They sit on an ancient crossroads between Europe, Asia and Africa and are surrounded by Arab countries. We joked with one guide about Israel being in the Eurovision Song Contest and in the Champions/Europa Football Leagues when they're not actually in Europe and I could tell that it's part of wanting friends who are as close geographically as possible and which aren't Arab states.
We were given instructions about bathing in the Dead Sea - we would be supplied with towels, don’t wear any jewellery as the salt damages it; at all costs avoid getting salt in your eyes as it's agony; only float on your back in the water; men shouldn't shave for 2-3 days beforehand as your skin will sting; don’t try to swim normally as you will probably drown; make sure you have a mud bath as the minerals are very good for your skin.
We got changed and headed down the steep slope to the water’s edge. The Dead Sea is rapidly evaporating a a rate of 1 metre per year, so buildings which were once on the side of the Sea are now many metres higher up.
Graeme was first to brave the water. The weird thing is that you're walking (and slipping!) on mud, not sand, as we're used to. What makes it more difficult is that the water is not very clear so you have to feel your way and then there is the occasional mud pot to drop into! Anyway Graeme was soon successfully floating in the water. The water's not very deep and it doesn't need to be for you to be able to float. Then it was Elizabeth’s turn.
It was very hot and sunny, so we sheltered under one of the many free umbrellas on the ‘beach’. We could see people sitting in mud pots on the beach and covering themselves in mud, so we both gave that a go as well. It's quite a job to clean the mud off, but our skin felt lovely afterwards. There were very powerful showers on the beach so we cleaned ourselves off, got dressed, had a look in the shops and had an Israeli beer at a very high price in the lowest bar on earth (unless there are any down the mines, that is!)
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| Distances are in kilometres |
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| Nomads |
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| There are two deserts in Israel, the Judaea and the Negev. This is the Judaea Desert and it starts as soon as you move east from Jerusalem |
A while after you leave Jerusalem going east, you start going downhill. Then you see a sign telling you that this point is the sea level of the Mediterranean. And then you steadily go down and down. The atmosphere gets heavier and then you get this view -
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| Our first glimpse of the Dead Sea |
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| Ship of the desert |
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| .... with the highest prices! |
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| And she is floating, not resting on a mud bank! |
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| The photo you just have to have! |
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| On the far shore - in Jordan - you can see Mount Nebo where God let Moses view the Promised Land, but he wouldn't let him enter as a punishment for disobeying him previously. It fell to his deputy, Joshua, to lead the Children of Israel into the Promised Land. Mount Nebo is marked on the map below. Kalya - where we were - is top left by the shore. Click on the map to enlarge it. |
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| Yes, it can be that slippery! |
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| What would my mum say if she could see me?! |
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| Bathing Belle? |
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| Yes, it was near here that some people passed by on the other side |
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| My landing card for Israel |
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| New rail line from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem |
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| Getting back into the port |
Israeli 'inventions'
Jerusalem is fast becoming a significant hi-tech centre and all the main tech players now have a presence there. Our guide for the day was keen to impress upon us how innovative Israel is and claimed Israeli credit for the following -
Jerusalem is fast becoming a significant hi-tech centre and all the main tech players now have a presence there. Our guide for the day was keen to impress upon us how innovative Israel is and claimed Israeli credit for the following -
Waze – software to analyse a route under prevailing road conditions and suggest the best route to take
Software to prevent road accidents
Touch screen technology
And the concept of the laptop
.... although the last two may well be open to debate!
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