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Hayley and Kevin have been a source of infinite wisdom during our overland travels and on the day of our long drive taking us via the Dead Sea, the instructions before our dip were clear and straight to the point-no heads under water, no drinking the sea (taste it and you'll see why!) and ladies...umm, no breastroke or frog kicks...best to have legs crossed please! Given Hayley and Kevin's words of wisdom, I wasn't quite sure what I was letting myself in for as I took the plunge into the calm and still waters. In retrospect, 'plunge' is actually a terrible verb to describe my action of entering the sea...it's probably one of the only bodies of water in the world when plunge is simply unapplicable as a descriptor due to the near impossibility of dropping oneself down into one of the most bouyant seas in the world. From my recent diving days, I understood already that the higher the salt content of water, the heavier the water particles are, and therefore one is compartively lighter and more bouyant when exploring its salty depths. But even knowing this, I was quite unprepared for how bizarre the sensation of floating/swimming in the
Dead Sea would be. As I became immersed in the water to about hip level, it was suddenly possible to lift my feet up and be entirely supported by the water to float. This sensation is all the stranger as unlike most bodies of water which require one to be completely horizontal to maintain bouyancy, it was possible to float in a whole variety of wierd and wonderful upright postures which we spent the better part of our 20 minute swimming duration exploring. It was so bizarre to be in water where one felt it was impossible to sink, even if you wanted to. I can't imagine why one would though-given Hayley and Kevin's initial advice not to drink the sea water, we were all immediately curious to taste it and as soon as it touches your tongue, it's the most ghastly flavour imaginable. One of it's other less pleasent attributes was the effect of the salt on one's skin. So many mud baths and beauty scrubs claim to contain mud from the Dead Sea, and while we were there, all of us girls were digging down with our toes and pulling up chunks of mud and spreading it over
one's self (all the while maintaining a cross legged position so much as possible). True to the claims, once the mud was washed off, our skin was left silky smooth! But this beauty treat couldn't quite make up for the discomfort one felt by contact with the water itself. Never before have I been in water that also made me sting almost immediately upon entry...open cuts were the first to be felt but after 15 minutes or so, a general stinging is felt across all of one's skin. By the 20 minute mark, all but the most hardy of us were out and helping eachother rinse off with fresh water from the jerry cans. Still salty but exhilerated from the experience, we ate a fantastic trck lunch before getting back on board and heading off again.
We were in for another treat today. On our way to our destination of Amman, we stopped at the city of Bosra (not to be mistaken with Afghanistan's Basra). Bosra was once one of the most important cities of the Middle East and as a consequence, some amazing ruins remain as testaments to its former days of glory. The star in the crown
is an amazing ampitheatre, absolutely huge and imposing. People who were visiting the site were making the most of the opportunity to fulfil the dream of a moment in the spotlight, with one gentleman even singing a full rendition of Bring Him Home form Les Mis, pretty impressive! We of course made a far less impressive offering singing the Kiwi kids song 'Oo-ma-rabbity' and numerous other silly tunes. We took our bows though with great gusto.
Finally that night we made our way for a brief stop in Amman, Jordan's capital. Amman itself appeared to be a very modern city filled with all the conveniences of modern life. We stopped for dinner and a cuppa (Oh how British did we feel as we sat happily sipping a cup of Earl Grey deliciousness!) We also squeezed in desert-a huge icecream-before hitting the road again. We were headed for a bush camp location but unfortunately, time wasn't on our side that day and the truck ended up parked by the side of a highway, overhung by a man-made quarry which we all felt alittle nervous going to sleep beside. It was particularly nerve wracking when a rain of small rocks and
dust fell over us that evening. But already so dirty from the dip in the Dead sea, we barely blinked. We were however very glad to hit the road again early the next morning after a hard day's night.
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