How Low Can You Go?
Trip Start
May 07, 2005
1
63
117
Trip End
Ongoing
Ein Gedi (Dead Sea),
Israel
Monday, November 28, 2005
How Low Can you Go? (Kim)
1300 feet below sea level! In our plan to visit Israel we did not expect to get the chance to see much beyond Jerusalem. I was very pleased we made it to the Dead Sea. Thanks to a rental car and a touch of bravery we were able to get ourselves to the lowest point on earth (above water). The car was around $30 a day with insurance and there was no extra fee to drop it off in a different city. What a deal! The bravery part was necessary as we would have a small stretch of road that went through the Palestinian territories. We were assured as long as we didn't turn off the highway all should be okay.
I drove while Dave tried to figure out how to get us to the Dead Sea. We got a late start out of Jerusalem due to some additional site-seeing and a few navigational challenges. Typically people go to the nearby ruins of Masada first thing in the morning and then relax and float in the Dead Sea at Ein Gedi. We opted to float right away and save hiking Masada for the next day.
On the way we passed by a guy standing with his camel at the "Sea Level" sign
Ahava
. It was an easy drive and I did not even realize we had passed through any kind of a warzone on the way. Although I was a bit worried about this. License plates on Israeli cars are different than Palestinian cars.We also spotted the Ahava factory as we were driving. Of course I had to stop. Dave couldn't understand why I was so excited. Ahava makes some of the best foot cream on the planet. Right before leaving for this trip I bought a tube of it for around $23. At the factory you could buy any single Ahava product at a significant discount. I ended up getting my foot cream for $7 - yippee! I also bought a moisturizer and a bar of soap. I wanted to buy a few more things but this is one of the downsides to backpacking on a long term trip. You just can not carry too much extra unless you mail it home.
The Dead Sea is not a sea at all but a large lake sitting on the Israeli-Jordanian border. The air around the sea is hazy, the water looks like there is an oil slick on top of it, there are crystallized salt formations growing on the rocks and you float! It use to be thought that nothing could live in this water but scientists have found 11 types of bacteria that can survive. There are fresh water sources that go underground into the lake but these are used by people and the hot desert sun takes it's toll evaporating water. The Dead Sea is receding at 200 inches per year. Efforts to save it are underway.
This water feels different than the ocean water
Dave Relaxing in Dead Sea
. It feels like it has been through a water softener and a bit oily. If you have any scratches on your skin they burn. You do not want to get this water anywhere near thin skin like your lips or your eyes. That also burns! There were hoards of teenagers from the nearby Youth Hostel (same place we were staying). Lots of them were swimming to a nearby beach past a barrier to collect some of the famous dead sea mud. We did the same and slathered ourselves silly. We also saved some of the mud to carry back to Egypt and a chunk of the crystal salt rock. We hoped the border control would not question rocks and mud in the luggage.After floating and mudding it up we went to our hostel. The Dead Sea attracts people because it is said to have healing properties. I don't know whether or not that is true but I do know we fell into a deep deep sleep for several hours. It was like one of those sleeps you feel when recovering from jetlag.
