Another early morning crossing to the Jordan border where we had to get used to a new Kings face plastered everywhere.  Amman was just another busy big city to be honest and we only had 2 nights here.  Our first day there was a huge electrical fire so we couldn’t even go downtown.  We spent about an hour standing on the side of the road trying to flag down one of the millions of taxis who wouldn’t have a bar of us when we asked them to turn their meter on!  Two Jordan locals ended up flagging one down for us and we jumped out and ambushed the driver so he couldn’t drive off.  We wandered around the Citadel and local museum which had a few Dead Scrolls in it.

The most exciting part was heading out to the Dead Sea.  We were given a few options, either we could scramble down a cliff face for free Dead Sea or pay about £10 for a resort beach.  Usually we would have taken the cheap option, but hey, we were on holiday.  It was sweltering hot so we wasted no time making our way to the water. At the sand line there was a weird hard crust of calcium we marvelled at.  As we made our way out, the water felt no different to any other beach, until we could no longer touch the bottom, even if we had of wanted to.  It was impossible to dive, the water just pushed you back up.  You could stand straight and just bob without your shoulders going under.  It was incredible.

We learnt pretty quick to be careful about getting any water on our faces.  Dead Sea in the eye was like someone squeezing chilli powder on your pupils.  It hurt like hell.  Mosquito bites and any other small scratches also quickly made themselves known.  Our tour guide had warned us beforehand that those who had diarrhoea recently would be Ring of Fire.  At this point, luckily, we were ok in that department.

The water felt a bit like Vaseline on my skin and it was damn hard to dry off.  I was in awe at the local women who swam in their full get-up, covered from eyes to ankles.  I have no idea how they managed it.  We bought black Dead Sea mud off some locals which is rumoured to be good for the skin.  After actually being there and trying this, I don’t buy it for a second.  It took days of moisturising to get rid of the lizard look.  Despite that, it was an amazing day.  Afterwards, we headed up Mt Nebo to Moses’ Memorial and final resting place.

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