Wadi Rum is a huge wadi/canyon in South Jordan. It is where Lawrence of Arabia lived/was filmed. We had a local guide take us on a 2 hour tour. You could tour the place for days if you had time. We hiked thru one of the big crevasses in the rocks. Dani and Elle are very daring. The rock formations are amazing. Many Bedouins still live in the area.
Dani seeming very entertained as we drove into Wadi Rum.
On the right you can see a Bedouin tent.
Dead sea - It's called the Dead Sea because nothing lives in it. It is some of the saltiest water anywhere in the world, almost six times as salty as the ocean! The Dead Sea is completely landlocked and it gets saltier with increasing depth. Below 300 feet, the sea has 332 grams of salt per kilogram of seawater and is saturated. Salt precipitates out and piles up on the bottom of the sea. Even though it is winter we did venture into the Dead Sea and yes, you really float like you wouldn’t believe.
Here is a picture of the rock hard salt shelf as you enter the Dead Sea. It looks like sea foam at first glance, but whe you touch it is hard salt.
Dani and Elle enter the water. You can somewhat see the rocks covered in salt crystals. They are sharp to walk on so you have to be very careful upon entering the water.
The water was kinda cold... we didn't want to walk farther in, but you can't go this far and not float in the Dead Sea.
It is pretty amazing that you can just float with your arms and legs sticking up out of the water. If you leave your hand out of the water for a few minutes you can already feel the salt crystals building up as the water evaporates - very weird slimy feeling. We had to shower before we left. The showers were ice cold, but better than having salt all over your body.
Today was our longest driving day. We were driving for about 4 hours on windy mountain roads. We were grateful to finally get back to the hotel. We stayed in Amman at the Meridien again. The girls loved that we ordered room service for dinner - burgers and pasta - we are so predictable!
