After a slightly confusing start to the day where nobody seemed to know how we were getting off the mountain, we got transferred to reunite with our Jordanian driver, who hadn't bothered to come to the TV less hotel we were staying in, but stayed in a nearby town with full mod cons. Anyway although we were almost at sea level we still had another 400m to descend. Because we were off to the Dead Sea.
On our way we passed the entrance to what is called the Grand Canyon of Jordan. As it wasn't that grand I think the one in Arizona should sue.
It was great to see a sea again after a few days of desert, but of course this sea is like no other. For a start at the beginning it was easy to see Israel on the other side, and so it was always just a lake to us. But it is a big salty lake. When we stopped on a cliff to overlook the lake, with the smell of the salt, the wind in our faces, and the waves crashing against the cliff, you could have been anywhere in the West of Ireland. It was quite choppy, and on the far side (at this point I'm not sure if it was Israel or Palestine) it looked like a storm was brewing. At 400m below sea level it is the lowest point on the Earth's surface. Its pretty humbling to think that you are below 95% of all the fish on the planet, and 99.999% of all the other humans.
On we went to the quite swish hotel/resort where we were going to actually have a chance to bathe in the Dead Sea. Basically it is like going to the beach in any other resort in the world, except much more salty. The temperature in the wind wasn't much better than in Ireland in October, but the water was warmer. Because of the waves it was hard to do the classic floating reading the paper photo, but we go into the water, floated a little, and got out. There wasn't much else to do. Also the stones underfoot were very sharp. Anyway it is a classic case of been there done that, one you get in and float (or try to float in my case) there isn't much else to do. I'm not sure why people would go there for more than a couple of days.
One other thing, they say don't let the water get in your mouth and they are right. Because of the waves there were a lot more splashes, and I got one in the mouth. It was so salty, it was the foulest thing you could imagine. After we showered off the salt, we went up for a big buffet lunch in the posh hotel. I have to say it was a magnificant spread, and although it cost a bit, £20, we ate our fill and got our money's worth. The desserts were particularly good.
Following that we continued our journey to Amman, uphill all the way, as I guess everywhere on the planet is from the Dead Sea. We got to our hotel, which was another very good one, as usual. As this was 4pm we arranged to meet up at 5.30 for our last night out on this trip. We wanted an early start as all had early airport transfers or bus journeys in the morning. However when we got down to the lobby at 5.30 it was absolutely pouring down. I mean rain like we don't really see at home. It was so wet we couldn't go out, so in the end we just stayed in our hotel and had a few drinks and a snack from the bar menu, while we relived our experiences and said our goodbyes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_sea
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