Dead to the World

You know those days you are just feeling low, but can't put a finger on why... Not to worry, it is perfectly normal to be very low here in Israel. In fact, it is easy to be the lowest you'll every be!

It is very odd to be driving along, and see a sign that says "Sea Level" and not be hitting any water, then you keep driving, and see pretty designations that you are going deeper and deeper and you are still not wet!

Below is picture of the marker for 300m below sea level (-984ft), but you don't hit water until -1378ft!

The sensation of floating in the dead sea is almost indescribable. You walk out into the water, and instead of sand under your feet, there is rock salt. You keep walking until you are a bit deeper than waist-deep, then sit down into... nothing! Perfect suspension. Now you know what an ice cube feels like floating there in your glass.

Here are some pics of our train ... Mike was the engine, the rest of us were there for the ride.

Below is the picture that is my background on my work PC. I love the shadows and stormy weather. You can really understand how in this barren area we went thousands of years without finding the Dead Sea scrolls.

Wandering the Wilderness - our style

The Israelites were punished by God and made to "wander in the wilderness forty years". It was into that wilderness of Sinai that Mark and I set forth.

Of course, don't get going on whether it was really that particular spot, and for how long it was that spot or whatever. In fact, when I went to go check the wandering location of wanders, I found several web sites, but was most entertained by the definitive tone of this compendium (http://www.earth-history.com/Various/Compendium/hhc2ch16.htm) which actually indicates that little wandering was done in this region, with most of it out near my posting of a while back, Petra. I mean... COMPENDIUM??? Who uses such words anyway!?!

So, back to Sinai.........

After catching a fast moving, road wandering, headlight flashing van at the border between Egypt and Israel, we enter the Sinai Penninsula and make our way south through Taba and down to Dahab.

Once there, we check in to our resort hotel, which offered comfortable lodging at a reasonable price with a dive shop on location :)

Checking our gear - BWRAF!


This dive spot is called Moray Gardens. We did two dives here. The coral was beautiful, and the sea life better than anywhere I've been so far. One of my favorites was watching a small octopus change colors with his environment.