Day 10 - The Dead Sea and The Middle Crater
24.09.2010 - 24.09.2010
After yesterday’s extensive hiking, I was looking forward to lazily floating in the Dead Sea. We went to he Mineral spa. There are several of these spas, that most people go to because of the beaches and free showers.
I knew it was easy to float, but I didn’t know that “not” floating was difficult. In the deeper water, I had to work a little to stay upright. Of course floating is more fun than standing, so I didn’t fight it much.
After defying gravity for a while, it was time for some mud. If you don’t know about the Dead Sea, it’s not just known for being salty, it’s also known for a very rich, skin-enhancing mud. There was a designated area for people to mud up.
There was a sign in about one foot of water that said “today’s mud.” We dug in. The mud was very dense and, as you can see, virtually black. It felt like a soft clay. After a little while of the sun baking it in, we washed it off and felt our newly rejuvinated skin.
After a quick lunch at the spa, we headed off to one of the three big craters. We drove by the small one and tomorrow we will hike in the big one. Today we are going to a look out point for the middle one.
It was basically a mini hike. The drive was a bigger adventure than the hike. It was a very crooked dirt road that wove up a few hundred feet. You can see the barrels outlining the road.
As we drove up, we could see the massive amounts of geological activity that caused this crater.
We had a nice view.
This is the path that lead to the edge of the crater.
Here, you can see the edge of the crater.
Steve is about a foot from falling over the edge, but he got some impressive pictures.
On the walk back the sun was setting behind some of the only clouds I saw on my entire trip.
It was a good day.
Posted by thetodd 24.11.2010 09:13 Archived in Israel
