Some coworkers and I went to the Dead Sea while on a team meetup in Israel. My lower body’s too dense to float under normal circumstances (my legs just sink… like… stones), but I was assured I’d float here. And I did! It was such a funny sensation to wade out, squat, and feel my body rotate backwards as my legs sprang involuntarily up to the surface of the water.

The floor of the sea is covered with really goopy, dark greenish mud, and people actually rub the mud on their skin for (I presume) restorative purposes. I opted not to and didn’t think to get a photo. I did sink into the muck nearly up to my knee at one point.

As I was walking (more like stumbling) out of the water, I found a rock that had a bunch of salt crystals growing like gems on its surface. I also neglected to get a picture of this.

Luckily, I had no major flesh wounds on our visit, but I’m told the water really stings even minor cuts. I did have one little spot on my neck that burned just a tad, and although you’re discouraged from drinking the water or even getting it on your face, I ventured to lick my finger and found that the water burned my tongue.

Once we had our little swim (more of a bob), we showered off a little (an outside shower, no soap, just a rinse), but my skin felt horrible all the way home, as if I had gone for a week at the beach with no shower.

It was a really neat experience, definitely worth it if you’re in the neighborhood. It took us around two hours to drive back to our villa in Herzliya (near Tel Aviv), which is on the other side of the country from the Dead Sea. While in the sea, we could see Jordan across the way. I suppose we might have swum over for a visit, but the caretakers of the beach we went to had cordoned off an area for swimming, and I don’t imagine we could have gone  under the thing to swim outside it (seriously).