We leave Petra early morning for a full day of travelling and some adventures along the way to our ultimate destination of Madaba.
Our first stop is the Crusader castle of Karak, 
which became famous for the battles between the Muslim armies of Saladin, and the Crusaders.
We wander around and look down on amazing views of the surrounding area.
The castle includes stables, kitchens, soldiers barracks, a kitchen and the Crusader church.
We drive for another hour or so before we hit the Dead Sea. After a great buffet lunch we are ready for our float in a place where even regular sinkers are guaranteed to float! The Dead Sea is at the lowest point on earth and as a result of the high evaporation in the area has a salinity of 31%, which makes it 9 times more saline than your average ocean!
Virtually nothing can survive in this water which is unbelievably bitter on your tongue!
We have great fun in the water, practicing our synchronised swimming and trying to read a magazine! 
The Dead Sea is unfortunately, dying. Due to numerous diversions upstream by farmers of the River Jordan, one of the main water sources of water for the Dead Sea, the water levels here have fallen by 27m!! A number of options have been considered to stop this environmental disaster including piping water from the Red Sea!
Our last stop before we reach Madaba, is Mt Nebo, where Moses is reputed to have looked out over the Promised Land.
The Promised Land is to the left but the view today is really hazy and we couldn’t really see much. Moses is supposed to be buried around here when he died at the ripe old age of 120 years!
The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page. -St. Augustine
1 comment:
I heard it said that Israel had a plan to set up a syphon from the Mediterranean to top up the Dead Sea. Once primed it would happily run unaided.
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