Before you start, make sure to read my last Jordan blog here!
After our brief excursion into the desert, we jumped back
in the van with Ra-ed and headed off on our four and a half hour journey
through Aqaba and along the border with Israel towards the North part of the
Dead Sea, stopping only for overpriced crisps and coffee en route. I'm pretty
sure they have 'local' and 'tourist' charges in some of the shops this side of
the world! The North is certainly more sea-like than the South part of the Dead
Sea, and across the water you could see the cities of the West Bank ahead of
us. I don't think I'd ever been somewhere where two countries separated by
water seemed so close.
Our
hotel for the next two nights was the Crowne Plaza, a large resort with plenty
of rooms which I'm sure were booked out during the high season, a massive
swimming pool divided into six different depth sections, and the main appeal, a
small section of beach leading to the Dead Sea. Due to all of our driving that
day, we arrived just around sunset as they closed the beach, so headed instead
for a buffet dinner (can confirm that the hummus was not as good as the
Marriot) and then to bed.
It
was a buffet for breakfast the next morning, very manic with Saturday being the
end of the Jordanian weekend. Once fed, we made our way down to the beach,
expecting to have to fight for deck chair space, but finding only about ten
other visitors there. The first step was to take a five minute dip in the sea
to test the waters. You walk up to about waist depth, lift your legs, and bam,
you're floating on top of the water. I had a few cuts on me, including the
fresh ones from my camel handle and boy, talk about pouring salt into a wound!
It was excruciating, to the point where I was gritting my teeth as I got in,
but nothing would deter me from my Dead Sea experience. Maybe make sure that
you have no open cuts on you before you opt to do the same!
It's
difficult to return to standing position due to the buoyancy of the water,
meaning you have to scull your way around to get anywhere. I loved doing this
(much easier than normal swimming) but some people didn't seem to find it so
easy, and you don't want to make a mistake, as we saw when two lifeguards
rushed in to pour water over someone's eyes after they'd accidentally flipped
onto their front. After my initial five minutes to make sure that the salty
water hadn't adversely affected me in anyway, I returned to the water to float
to my hearts content and let the current carry me away - within the fifty metre
confines of the private beach, that is.
We'd
been told this was the healthy amount of time to spend in the sea, and with the
sun beating down I didn't mind floating my way back to shore, because there was
more fun to be had. Pails of Dead Sea mud were attached to mirrors on the beach
for you to slather yourself in, and so we did, turning into something of Swamp
Creatures by the end of it. Go big or go home, right? After a further twenty
minutes of letting the good mud nutrients set on our skin, we showered off and
basked in our deliciously soft skin.
For
a change, we headed up to one of the six pools in the mega pool, which was so
large we ended up having pretty much a whole pool to ourselves. The water here
was colder than the sea, refreshing in the head of the midday sun. Knowing it's
not everyday you visit the Dead Sea, I was keen to have another float, although
this one didn't last as long as I felt all of the salty cuts even more keenly -
even a scratch felt like torture, so I spent the next while watching from the sidelines as further tourists turned from humans into Mud Monsters!
And
just like that, somehow we'd managed to pass the whole day 'relaxing',
something I'd say I'm definitely not very good at. The sun set quickly again,
and it was time for another buffet dinner, although quieter this time given
that many local visitors had headed back home for work on Sunday. If you're into relaxing by the beach and getting your exfoliation on, this is the place for us, but I was keen for more travel and culture to come... coming soon to the blog!
I hope you enjoyed today's travel blog! I'll be back with more very soon so make sure to stay tuned on my Twitter @CiarasCountry, and drop me a message in the comments below with any comments or questions you may have about my adventures - thanks for reading!
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