Here’s some photos of the kids sliming themselves up in Dead Sea mud. I can assure you they looked sleek and elegant and 10 years younger once it rubbed off …
The Dead Sea area is quite creepy/beautiful. As you drive down into the valley (the lowest place on earth!) everything living dies away. There are some artificially irrigated plantations near the towns, but everywhere else is crispy, hot, parched and has a thin layer of sterilising poisonous salt over it to make sure everything’s good and dead. The sun blasts down and it is all glare and white and rock.
The sea itself is really a medium sized long thin lake. One side is Jordan and the other is Israel and Palestine. They all siphon off the water for industrial uses as fast as they can and the sea level is decreasing a meter a year. In 20 years it will have disappeared they say.
Once it wasn’t so toxically salty – we saw some very beautiful mosaics in Madaba which were of a map of the area in biblical times, showing Jerusalem and Bethlehem and the sea which once had fishing boats and sailing ships on it.

We scrambled about a ruined Crusader castle for an afternoon. Had a swim in the salty sea – very difficult and strange – it’s impossible to sink because the water is so buoyant. It’s a very strange experience. And did lots of swimming pool swimming: much easier. The food was unremarkable … but not too many flies. Yay.