Day 11:66 Floating in the Dead Sea

So, this is one of those amazing experiences you can only get in a few places in the world. Our Viking excursion to Petra included a day at the Dead Sea. We got to float on the Dead Sea. Totally worth the price of admission.

Hindsight — I should have done the mud pack when I got out. Maybe next time?

I’m a bit embarrassed by my photo — it shows what 70 days of cruise traveling can do to one’s waistline. I won’t be on the cover of GQ anytime soon! But there I am… floating like a cork. Real life. Real body. Real experience.

The Dead Sea sits at about 1,400 feet below sea level, making it the lowest point on Earth’s surface. It’s not actually a sea at all — it’s a salt lake — and its salinity is nearly 10 times higher than normal ocean water (around 34% salt). That extreme salt concentration increases the density of the water so much that your body simply cannot sink. You don’t swim — you bob. For thousands of years people have come here for its mineral-rich mud and water, believed to have therapeutic properties dating back to ancient Egyptians and Romans.

It was a weird feeling to trust the water. Every instinct says, “You’re going under.” But you don’t. The bigger challenge? Getting upright again. It was hard to get up and out of the water — I needed help. Donna did not. (She made it look easy.)

We were only about 15–20 minutes from Israel. I would have liked to have driven to the border to “check the country count box,” but opted not to due to time constraints. Hopefully, when — and if — things settle down there, Donna and I can travel to Israel with some friends who have relatives there. That is how I hope to experience it — with locals, not a tour guide.

The Dead Sea is completely unique to everything we have ever done in our lives.

Wow.

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