Truth about the Dead Sea

Driving through the Judean Desert toward the Dead Sea, it is difficult to comprehend that an oasis of mineral-rich healing waters await at the bottom of our descent.

It is barren countryside. There is not a blade of grass to be seen. No trees. Just layers and layers of colours formed by centuries of sand shifting.

The sun has heated my oversized jowls to boiling point. I look like I’ve swallowed two baby beets and the juice is leaching to the outside of my cheeks.

The brochures that lure travellers to this part of Israel tend to show bikini-clad women either floating serenely on a sea so salty and dense that it is impossible to sink. Or the same beautiful people layering themselves in mud that has ancient healing qualities.

But where my wife and I are heading doesn’t feel inviting at all. It feels desolate. Lifeless. In fact, this could be the surface of any far, far away planet as seen in Star Wars.

And then there it is.

First sight

The desert mountains part, the world’s deepest valley is unveiled, and the Dead Sea is there for all to see in its shimmering glory.

The white peaks of salt look like snowdrifts. The clear water reflects the deep blue of the sky.

The Dead Sea is the stuff of biblical legend and mystery. In the book of Genesis, Moses explains the Dead Sea was formed when God told Lot and his family to flee the area. They were told not to look back. Lot’s wife couldn’t resist, and when she did look back, she was turned into a pillar of salt  – and the Dead Sea was born.

The Dead Sea is at least three times more salty than the Great Salt Lake in Utah. It is 10 times saltier than the Mediterranean.

The water flows from the Jordan River into the Dead Sea. It is 67.4km long, 18km wide and at its deepest point it goes down 377m. It borders Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west.

The coastline is not quite as crowded with hotels as Queensland’s Gold Coast, but it has a similar design theme. The Dead Sea on one side  – high-rise resorts on the other.

Hotel room with no windows

We checked in to the Spa Club Hotel, which I must say, having stayed in thousands of hotels around the world, rates as one of the most bizarre.

The check-in process took forever. There seemed to be just one person working on the desk and every now and then he would just disappear, without saying anything, for a few minutes.

The room itself, while neat and tidy, had us rolling around in uncontrollable fits of laughter when we pulled open the curtains. Instead of looking out on to the Dead Sea, we were looking at a slab of plasterboard. There was no window behind the curtain. No view of the Dead Sea.

All the rooms were the same. I can’t imagine what possessed someone to design a hotel along a beautiful stretch of water and then not take full advantage of the view.

Anyway, the hotel’s shortcomings were quickly forgotten when we headed across the road and plunged into the Dead Sea itself.

It is not advisable to stick your head in the water so we waded out cautiously past the throngs of people caked in mud, sunning themselves on the shore, and simply collapsed backwards into the water.

We went down and then bobbed up like corks on a fishing line.

The water was warm, almost bath-like. It is almost impossible to drown in the Dead Sea, as the salt always forces you to float. It is not that easy to even put your feet on the bottom. Be careful not to shave before swimming, because any nicks or cuts sting from the saltiness of the water.

Healing powers

The Dead Sea water is said to help people suffering from psoriasis and rhinosinusitis and the mud from the area is used to treat osteoarthritis. I saw many people lying by the water with mud packed on their joints.

There is also a healthy trade in Dead Sea skincare products. Our guides took us to the Ahava factory and my wife bought enough products to take 10 years off her age. Ahava has been using the region’s skin-moisturising minerals and age-delaying algae to make products since 1988.

We also took time to visit Ein Gedi kibbutz, founded in 1953, where people from all over the world come to live and find themselves. Some come for days, and stay as guests at the hotel, others stay forever.

I met a woman from Melbourne who had been there for more than 20 years and had no interest in returning to Australia. The kibbutz survives today on tourists and through primary production.

Qantas flies daily to Hong Kong. El Al flies from Hong Kong to Tel Aviv. Leave plenty of time to clear El Al’s complex check-in security procedures.

More: Visit goisrael.com