The Dead Sea

Today, we had a nice relaxing day at the Dead Sea. We took the bus from Jerusalem to Qumran (where the Scrolls were discovered), about 40 minutes southeast of the city. Deciding to forgo the busy touristy beaches of Ein Gedi further south, we ended up being dropped off at the side of the highway so that we could make our way to Kalia Beach.

We spent our time sunbathing at the Biankini public beach, floated in the Sea (it is nine times saltier than any other body of water on Earth) and covered ourselves in mineral-rich mud (this was my favourite part!). We floated out pretty far into the Sea, but try as we might we were incapable of sinking or even remaining upright - we were so buoyant our legs kept floating back to the surface!

After a while, the salt started to sting so we left to catch a bus - but no bus would stop at the side of the highway for us. Finally we found a nice cabbie to take us up to Jericho where we caught a bus back in time for a shwarma dinner.

As Jericho is now a Palestinian city, we could not visit it this time - it is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Next time for sure.