Distance: 30.4 km
Time elapsed: 1:47:00
Average speed: 17 km/ hr
Max speed: 59.9 km/ hr
Temp: 23 C
Weather: Hot and buggy! (only flies though)
Such a beautiful morning! We woke as the sun peeled it's golden self up over the desert valley, packing our tent and returning to our bikes. Sometime overnight a wild dog evidently discovered our bag of food, ripping out the zipper and eating all our stores. We found pieces of cloth and shredded bags cascading down the hillside, my heart pining for the delicious loaf of dark German bread Anselm bestowed on us. Shoot.
Campspot over the Hammamat Ma'in springs
On the upside, the road shooting us down toward the Dead Sea was splendid, zigzaging around bedouin camps and cross wadi bridges.
Dead Sea Panorama
Such a view!
Closer to the water we began spotting solar paneled houses, so we stopped by and discovered they are barren military posts. The guys seemed pretty bored, happy to chat and drink tea with us.
Military friends
Chris and I continued south on the Dead Sea road; like the Turkish coast the road rolls up and down hills just at the water's edge. To our left the canyon walls remain almost a shear cliff face, with occasional wet or dry wadis reaching out to the sea. On the right was a steep drop down to the saltwater, it's waves splashing in tropicesque turquoise and white rivlets.
Happy to descend
Dead Sea coast
We parked the bikes at Wadi Attun, hiding them behind a cement block and covering them with our army sheet. As soon as they were parked an army of flies swarmed, covering every inch of the bikes in a creepy, crawling monster blanket, as well as us if we didn't constantly swat them away.
Fly-monster blanket osrt of hiding our bikes
The hike in to Wadi Attun is beautiful, in a desert climate sort of way. We followed a small river upstream, surrounded by a green thicket of ferns and palms. Climbing over boulders and crossing the warm spring water several times we arrived in less than an hour at the steamy hot spring. The water near the small boiling falls was much too hot for me to get near, but luckily a stream of cold water came pouring out of the canyon on the other side, making the middle mixed area perfect. Privacy is great (I didn't have to cover with long pants and tshirt here), but regardless the flies are too obnoxious to let any patch of skin remain visible...
Stopping only long enough to smile before the flies attack
Chris in the Attun hot spring pool
Once back out of the canyon we were happy to find out bikes still under the green tarp, though also fly encrusted. We biked onward, watching the sun sink down below a faraway Israeli ridge of mountains across the water. Just before the next large canyon, Wadi Mujib, we found a perfect hill overlooking the sea, set far away from the road traffic. Under a full and bright moon we devoured the last of our foodstuffs; a can of beans, half a pide, and 2 tomatoes.
Palm trees and other green spruce up the wadi
Cool canyon water in Hamamat Attun
Bitterly cursing the dog thief, we popped the tent and retired inside the cocoon of safety, away from the flies, noise, and wind. Chris was still starving so I broke out my secret Galaxy bar; we nibbled on chocolate crisp until drifting off for another early night.
No comments:
Post a Comment