Leaving Jerusalem, headed east you have to go into the West Bank to get to the Dead Sea. The pictures of the shacks are of a Nomadic tribe of goat farmers. They are Muslims. These shacks were barely holding up but some of them have satellite dishes...but no running water!! There is not much for the goats to eat as you can see, so the farmers might be out for over night in order to feed their goats. They move then the level of food options for the goats are depleted. Along the drive which is straight down hill basically you have to pass Jerico. You can see the whole city from the road but we could not go there. Jews are not allowed there. So our driver could not take us there. Very sad. We had to pass through the wall of separation again to get there but by now we had become accustomed to the wall. That in itself is weird. When you get to the spot that says you are at the Dead Sea, there is a Palestine guy there in full custom head gear and robe with a camel. Our guide had been coming here for years so he knows him. He said it was safe to stop and ride the camel. Of course, I wanted the kids to ride the camel and take a great picture of them. They refused. They had a bad camel experience in Namibia and they were not going back to the limousine of the desert. I asked the driver to stop anyway thinking they would give in, they did not. It was up to Charles and me to have this Kodak moment! We did it and I was screaming the whole time! Kathleen took video of it all and if you ever need a "pick me up" come to our house for home movies and make fun of me! Kathleen may have already put this on Youtube! The camel ride ended and we were off to the Dead Sea experience. Well, that is what it was a REAL experience. Hot, hot, hot, really hot. One more place along the way was the Ahava Dead Sea salt products factory. We bought enough products to make us gorgeous and allowed us free admission to a private beach area with a restaurant, changing rooms and showers for the Dead Sea! Wonderful right?? Also, along the way we saw the sign pointing for us to stop at the town where the parable about the Good Samaritan happened. Our guide told us that really nothing was there, so we took a picture of the sign. There was an animal that looks kind of like a goat on steroids that was at the Ahava factory backdoor basically. Our guide was thrilled that they were there, about 6 of them. He said sightings of this animal are rare. There was a bucket of water there..that is why they were there. They were hot too! I have to look at my note to find out the name of the animal.
Date trees, date trees, date trees. They are everywhere and just full of dates right now. The bags you see on the fruit are to keep birds from eating them. They look like an oasis in the desert. Look at the pictures closely. You can see a fence and then some plant growth and some trees. When our driver was young the level of the water was right at the trees. It seems that the water level of the Dead Sea does down one yard in depth with is about 15 feet of beach front. Look how far you have to walk to get down to the water. Well, again, it is all downhill so when you are wet and ready to end the day...it is an uphill climb! Ou guide warned us, do not go under the water..well it is hard to do anyway, do not swallow the water...do NOT let the water get in your eyes. Well, we went to the changing room and met a bunch of nice Europeans that did not bring towels..got it? Kathleen and I had the appropriate wear again...yea! The guys wet in their changing room and we met afterward to trek down to the water. The whole idea of sunscreen and toting towels and the heat...we just headed down for the water and wanted it to be a quick dip. When we got down there if was laughable about the number of people there for the day having a picnic at the Dead Sea! Well there was a sulphur smell not bad but not good either, tons of people sitting elbow to elbow to get some shade under some very inadequate thatchlike umbrellas and all of a sudden we were there. Nick grabbed a plastic chair off the pile of chairs for our stuff and off we went. We put our towels, shoes etc..in the chair and all I wanted was one picture of us at the Dead Sea, but who do you ask? Someone that is covered in mud? Someone that is already soaked in the alt water? All of a sudden Miss Russia appears. She is in a white bikini and wants me to take HER picture doing so sexy poses as if she was in Sports Illustrated Magazine, the swimsuit edition! She was nice and return the favor. Thank you Miss Russia! You cannot drowned in the Dead Sea it is not possible. If you do try which would be an unfortunate mess and sting like crazy, you would pop up. In the world, oceans are 3% salt. In this Sea, which again is really a lake, is 30% salt! You float whether you want to or not. The water is a little bit oily, not sure why
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