Firstly, thanks to those who’ve taken the time to post comments – each and every one is fantastic to read when we are so far from home. We wish Jan a speedy recovery – and hope you are able to read the blog soon Jan!!! Also, good luck to Stacee for the touch tournament this weekend – go kick arse!

Today we changed the itinerary – moving the Amman city tour to another day so we could see something not on our planned tour and have more time at the Dead Sea.

While reading the Lonely Planet guide, we were intrigued by the idea of seeing Bethany Beyond the Jordan – the place where Jesus was reputedly baptised. Our driver helped make this change to the schedule and picked us up at a respectable time. The weather in Amman wasn’t the best for taking photos today anyway – but thankfully the deluge of the other day was behind us.

We travelled south, stopping at a garage station – where the driver said he’d be about half an hour. We insisted that he left the keys in the van … just in case. He came back a minute later with these local delicacies – thin biscuits that have a sesame seed topping. They were delicious! On the road, we stopped at sea level – taking the obligatory tourist photos of the signs.

Karla at Sea Level

From sea level down (about 417 meters) we ended up at the Bethany Beyond the Jordan tourist area – which is very close to Israel – so security is pretty tight. Catching an army style van with bench seats was the only way to go, and we stopped at a couple of places to be shown where Elijah went up in the whirlwind, and where Pope John Paul II gave a mass in 2000.

Once we stopped, we walked to a sight of a church with steps down to a trickle of the Jordan river where Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist.

Baptism of Jesus Site

There were actually three churches discovered on the sight – all built on top of each other. The excavations here couldn’t commence until the peace treaty with Israel was signed in 1996 – so it’s still pretty fresh. We walked on, to a modern Greek Orthodox church where baptisms in the Jordan river are carried out today. It is literally a stones throw from Israel (even for someone with a poor arm) – but there are plenty of security guards there to keep you from getting into trouble. The river was flowing today – mainly  because of all the recent rain – but apparently it is little more than a stagnant trickle normally.

From there, we went to our hotel at the Dead Sea. After a spot of lunch, and a wander over to the Movenpick Hotel to see how the other half live, we had our dip in the Dead Sea. It is all it is cracked up to be – floating without effort and amazingly refreshing. We smothered the obligatory mud all over ourselves, took a couple of happy snaps – and that was another adventure ticked off!

Sandra and Neil with Dead Sea Mud (now 10 years younger)