A watery day

Today we headed west towards Israel. Firstly visiting the baptism site of Jesus in the Jordan River. Bethany on Jordan - in my mind I was expecting there would still be a village or something but its just a remnant creek. Until 1995 it was army land because of the proximity to Israel and no one was allowed to visit. But with the Peace Accord the land has been opened up and it's now possible to walk to the place where they say Jesus was baptized.

However unexpectedly – because over the years the River Jordan has changed course there isn't even any water there! - just a sign and a chapel and steps leading down from what may have been an earlier church. Can you tell I was a bit underwhelmed?

Jordan claims that Jesus was baptized on this the east bank and our guide keeps quoting the bible – but I can find no references to the distances of which he speaks which has led them to identifying this particular location.

Moving along we then walked to the actual River Jordan – again it's now a tiny rivulet rather than the grand and rushing river that the NT seems to imply. Being only 6m from Israel means we had to notify the Jordanian Security so they could notify the Israeli security on the other side. Guns and soldier on both sides – ironically waving to us though not I suspect to each other.

I look forward to going to the other side of the Jordan in a couple of weeks time - this time we got to put just a foot in the water but on the other side access seems easier.

From Bethany on Jordan we went to the Dead Sea. It's low down so your ears pop. And you really do float – so much that it's actually hard to swim and hard to even stand up. And the taste is revolting! After a while I got the hang of the floating and it was quite relaxing – expect more news on this front at the end of the time here when we'll be at the resort.