FIGJAM'S Epic Adventure: Hey Look, It's The Dead... Sea!

21/9/09

2000 (local time)

The Dead Sea! “Hey look its Dead, See!” We got driven to the Dead Sea by the hotel owner Wa’el, from first impressions he looked like a pretty funny cool dude! But after 40 minutes of his annoying chat and trying to force us to pay an extra $12JD and the rest ($18AUD) which we cheerfully declined the first time, but after constantly bugging us about it over and over again! It got bloody annoying.

Anyway, we got to the sign that said ‘DEAD SEA 18KM’ and our driver decided to pull over. We spent about 20 minutes taking photos of Road Signs... It would have been funny, but we were actually quite excited to be in the Dead Sea we really didn’t want to be taking photos of road signs!

We eventually made it to the Dead Sea, it cost us $12JD to get in... because its on this resort. Nevermind, so I got my kit off and locked it away! And we hit the beach! As soon as your knee deep in the water, you already feel a bit different! The water feels thick and almost sticky. The beach is quite shallow and then eventually falls away. So normally you would just fall in and sink! But at the Dead Sea you can stand bolt-upright and your head will still be above water. The water is 80% Salt, so just licking the water off your fingers makes you want to throw up! It’s so intense! It is one of the weirdest feelings ever just floating in the water without having to do anything! Greg and I thought we should test how buoyant the water was. So we found 2 big rocks, took them into the water, and rested them on our chest to see if we still floated! We Did!

Too be honest, I couldn’t stay here for longer than 2 hours! It just gets a bit too much! I'm so used to putting my head under and playing around in the water, but if you get the slightest bit of water in your eye! It’s one of the worst pains ever! Your eyes don't stop stinging! It sucks, you want to wipe the water out of your eyes using your hands, but it make it worse! So the only way you can fix it, is by finding your way back to shore and wiping your eyes with a dry towel!

After about 1.5 hours floating around in the water, I had to get out, and go swimming in the normal pools they have at the resort! It was one of the nicest feelings ever! To be able to open your eyes underwater! It was fantastic!

We had a quick bite to eat, and then headed back in the water for the last time! Again, super weird! Its quite hard to explain, but everything you learn about how to stay buoyant in normal water gets thrown out of the water (excuse the pun), its almost impossible to swim, because you can’t really kick! WEIRD!

After 3.5 hours of swimming and mucking around, it was time to leave! So Wa’el picked us up, he made us write in his book about how good of a tour guide he was. Because he wasn’t that great, instead I just ended up writing about what we did that day! I wasn’t a huge fan of him!

Anyway, that was the Dead Sea Experience! Amazing... but very weird!

THE JAM IS OUTTA HERE!