We took the long walk down from the resort pool area to the Dead Sea shoreline. You can see the distance from the shoreline and the desert sandy stone landscape of the area. The government recognising this area as a tourist Mecca have laid cement stairs down the steep terrain to make it 'easy' for tourists to negotiate the pathway. They have also installed a fresh water shower so that swimmers can rinse off the heavy salt residue that the sea deposits on bodies. The stony shoreline was extremely hot when we attempted to enter the water. So with quick " ouch!" movements we hopped into the sea.
The water was warm and a little slimy due to its extremely high salt mineral content. We'd been warned not to put our heads under the water or let water get into our mouths, ears and eyes because of the saltiness. However Ken did get one splash of water in an eye and immediately felt the sting of the droplet. I managed to get to shore - not an easy task as the thickness of the water makes the going slow. Ken washed his eye with fresh water from our water bottle and all was fine. Later I splashed a droplet of Dead Sea water in my mouth and it was like $500% salt to taste in the single droplet. No wonder there is NO animal or plant ion life in the Dead Sea! Just a bunch of curious tourists.
The strangest thing was that when we tried to sit in the sea our feet floated to the top of the water and it was impossible to sink. We bobbed like corks and could not sink. Even when we stood in a depth way over our heads we found that we could not sink. Looking back I should have taken a photo of us standing in deep water with our hands above our heads because even then we did not sink. It seems that nothing sinks to the bottom of this sea!
We spent about half an hour in the sea doing all kinds of actions, including trying to swim, dog paddle sand treading water. Swimming washers except for breast stroke because we didn't want to splash water about. Treading water wasn't really necessary because even when we stood still we didn't sink, but I did it for an exercise activity. Don't really know why because the long uphill walk back would prove to be an exercise in itself. Some of our fellow travellers took the offer of a mud bath from mud provided at the shoreline. It!s supposed to be rejuvenating but we gave it a miss as removing the mud took some effort under the showers. Most people who tried it said they felt no difference but we told them they looked 20 years younger. Surprisingly, the sea-salt water seemed to have no ill effect on the dermatitis rash I have developed over the past years. I had half expected it to be aggravated but I've suffered no ill effects.
We took a refreshing cold shower under the open public showers and headed up the hill to the resort area. We still had 40 minutes before we needed to board our coach for the return four hour return journey back to the Sea Princess in Aqaba so we spent the next 25 minutes swimming in the cool, fresh chlorinated pools. It was a lovely way to end our visit to the Dead Sea.
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