Today we got back on our bikes and rode along the Dead Sea all day. The wind came from the north, so we had a little push all day. What a wonderful change from the awful head wind we had leaving Jerusalem.
A few km from the kibbutz, we arrived at the deepest place on earth. At 418 meters below sea level, we were at 1370ft below. Yowza!
The ride was along a busy road, with lots of trucks heading south to Eilat or to the large mineral-extraction plant.
Coming along the Dead Sea was pretty cool. The terrain is much like Death Valley, with strange shapes and salt ponds everywhere. The water was an unnatural light blue and the clouds were impressive.
This next sign led to a couple new discoveries: apparently there are many thousands of Thai workers in this area. Who knew?! Often many people will come over from the same village. They have 5-year work permits and go back to Thailand when they finish. (Tip: the fourth language in the sign of Thai).
The other discovery was that Israel placed many land mines along the Jordanian border during the early conflicts. Already not good, but in addition, the flash floods that happen here every year have moved the mines around, so nobody is quite sure where they are now.
We saw some awesome scenery. Check out these shots…
And just when you think the desert is barren and empty, you come across botanical field stations where they have intensive lush vegetable growing. They dig wells here that go down a mile.
This place was an eye-opener for me. Who knew you could grow tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers on such upright trellis? They export $125,000,000 worth of peppers to Europe! And who knew you could grow strawberries overhead in coconut husks? OMG!!
And they grow hyssop, oregano, safe, and other herbs on the columns holding up the roof.
And just to wrap up, we cycled the last five kilometers at the sun went down. Lovely light…