The Dead Sea is salt lake bordering Jordan to the East and Israel to the West. At 400m below sea level it’s the lowest place on Earth, and definitely an experience for your bucket list.
Floating in the Dead Sea Israel
The Dead Sea is 33.7% salt, making it one of the saltiest bodies of water on Earth, and it’s 8.6 times saltier than the ocean! No life forms can live in such a salty environment, hence the name “the Dead Sea”. I knew it would be salty, but nobody told me how much it would sting! I had shaved my legs that day and boy did it burn when I lay in the sun. Whatever you do, don’t put your head under or get that water in your eyes if you go floating in the Dead Sea…
Since it was the middle of March it wasn’t too warm at the Dead Sea and it took me a few minutes to pluck up the courage to dunk my body in the water. But once I was in it was fine, and I rather enjoyed bobbing around with no hands or feet on the ground. You feel so buoyant it’s like you have a life vest strapped to your body!
I also wasn’t expecting the Dead Sea to feel so greasy and oily! You come out of the water coated in a film of salty grease and if you touch your iPhone like I did then it gets over everything. It’s best to head straight to the showers on the beach so you can rinse yourself off.
Dead Sea Mud Treatment at Isrotel
After my little swim in the Dead Sea I returned to my hotel, the Isrotel Dead Sea, where I was booked in for a mud treatment in the Esprit Spa. The mud from the Dead Sea is rich in minerals and a mud wrap is recommended for arthritic pain and relaxation. It flushes out the toxins from your body, relieves muscle pain and restores a healthy glow to the skin, improving its moisture and elasticity.
I had never had a mud wrap before and this was quite the experience! I wish I could have taken photos, but unfortunately my hands were trapped underneath a pile of mud.
The spa therapist conducting my mud wrap spoke little English so we had to make do with one word questions and answers, but I deciphered she was asking me “hot or medium?”
I had no idea what the hot or medium referred to, so I went with medium to be on the safe side.
She lay me down on a massage table covered with towels and a plastic sheeting, then proceeded to slap on warm gloopy stuff all over my body. She sat me up and put it on my back first, then lay me down and continued to cover me in mud. I was expecting her to just apply a thin film of mud like a face mask, but she laid it on thick so that I was pretty much cemented to the table.
Next I was wrapped up like an Egyptian mummy in the plastic sheet and towels.
“You sleep like little baby OK?”
Um OK?! She dimmed the lights and I lay there wrapped up like a little newborn baby. It was an incredibly weird feeling; like I was inside a protective, warm cocoon. Perhaps this is what a baby feels like inside its mother’s womb? I couldn’t move any part of my body, but somehow this didn’t make me feel anxious at all. In fact I felt incredibly relaxed and soon drifted off into a semi-conscious sleep.
I’m not sure how long I was lying there, but when the lights came on I really wasn’t ready to move. The spa therapist slowly peeled my back off the table and lifted me up, then walked me slowly towards the en-suite shower. With all that mud stuck to me I was moving like a zombie- what a funny sight it must have been!
The next thing I know she’s pulling my disposable knickers off and hosing me down with the shower head. So I guess I’m naked then!
After the last bits of mud were washed off, I was given a towel, a glass of water, and new set of disposable underwear to slip into. I was slathered in some sparkly lotion containing dead sea salts, then sent me on my way. I felt like I’d been given a new body, and my skin was so so soft! I felt so relaxed I was ready for a sleep, and it was better than any massage! Make sure you drink plenty of fluids before and after as you lose a lot of water through the mud treatment.
The Mud Treatment at the Isrotel Esprit Spa costs $73.57. Thank you to the Israel Ministry of Tourism for organising my visit.
