We drove down to the Dead Sea which is actually just over 1000 BELOW sea level. As you descend into the Rif Valley the air gets warmer, thicker and muggier and the scenery turns barren brown and a spectacular blue lake opens up before your eyes. There are only large usual chain hotels along the Dead Sea and we chose the Marriott. Again luxury for us, a nice break with a bit of sun and swimming. The hotel was right on the beach and we wandered down to the shore and coated ourseves in mud which is supposed to be good for the skin and then floated in the Sea which is six times than any ocean. There were quite a few people around with skin conditions so we hoped this mud would help Peter's skin problem as it contains calcium and magnesium known to help skin conditions.

Getting into the water was the most amazing feeling. You can't really swim as the water keeps you too high out of the water, but just lie on your back and relax and you don't need a lilo you just float of your own accord. It is said that if you have small cuts you didn't know about they will sting. Luckily we didn't but just a splash on the lip stings and the taste is horrible. Ater 2 and a half days of this treatment mud, sea and sun Peter's skin rash is cured it is absolutely unbelievable. The rash was all over his body and starting to go down his legs and it has completely gone!!!

From here we went to the site where Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist and where the five apostles met. The small tour leads you down to where Jesus unrobed and walked down the steps into the water and was baptised. From there we went to the Jordan River which is now only a small muddy stream with Jordan border guards on one side and Israeli border guards on the other. There is also a small catholic church at the site. It was a good informative tour lasting about an hour.

We left it late in the day to set off for Petra which took us longer than we thought due to the spectacular mountain drive and ended up doing something we try never to do, drive in the dark. The roads have no lights and neither do a lot of the vehicles and there is always the risk of hitting an animal or dropping into an unseen ditch. It was only about 6 p.m. but we couldn't even see our map. Luckily I read about a campground in the next town at the side of the castle. After locating the castle which was closed we found someone in the visitor centre who said we could park in the car park. Somebody else came along and took us to the camp ground nearby. After a few wrong turns in the pitch dark we eventually stumbled into a small bedouin camp with about 5 tents. There were no other campers but the owner came out to welcome us and made us tea. He spoke good English so we chatted with him for a while.

In the morning breakfast was waiting for us, the usual pitta bread, cheese and tomatoes with oil and tea. He even washed up our pots from our dinner the previous night!!! As we were going to visit the castle he took us and we spent a good hour exploring the tunnels and hidden passageways underneath the castle although I got a bit worried going into the bowels of the castle in case we dropped our torch and broke it and we couldn't find out way out!!!

After the castle visist we moved on to Petra which is truly amazing!!