Water in the Desert

October 4th 2023

With enough religion for the rest of my life, we're going for some desert solitude now.

We drive south, kinda driving through the entire West Bank by accident, to Ein Gedi — a kibbutz and actual oasis in the desert — and the only populated botanical garden in the world, I'm told. About 500 people live here in this lush green spot overlooking the dead sea. People drive around in golf carts here, along little pathways through flawless lawns. It feels a bit like what I imagine a Florida retirement community to feel like.

The entire drive is stunning. We pass through desolate mountains, see a bunch of goat herders walking with their flock, date plantations, and a neat little sign showing where the sea level is — we end up a solid 400 meters below it in the end. Oh, and then there's the guy lying shirtless on a hill in front of his parked car smoking a shisha in the middle of nowhere. Absolute legend.

I've never been to the desert like this, so this is all really fascinating.

take a hike, why don't you

We navigate to the huge Dead Sea Works industrial plant, where they extract large amounts of potash, magnesium and salt from the dead sea. With the declining water levels, they actually turned the entire southern basin of the dead sea into evaporation ponds for mineral extraction.
From there, we take our struggling little Hyundai onto an unpaved desert road that is so secret even google maps doesn't know about it. It does, however, lead to the promised parking spot from where we hike down into the canyons the rainwater carves into soft sandstone and gypsum.
If you ever went down to Gerudo town in Breath of the Wild, it's that. Like, to a T. Winding canyons, weird rock formations and beautiful, twirling sediment layers.

chasing the sea

Back on the main road not far from our kibbutz an abandoned spa building stands in the desert. It used to have beach access, a pool, and sulphur baths — but with the water levels dropping by a meter or more every year and the area becoming riddled with sinkholes and open pits, business can't have been going too well.
Judging from the online reviews, this place may have been open as little as a year ago. One glowing google review reads:

"Very dirty. Outside sitting area never cleaned. Inside pools also not cleaned, hair, dirt everywhere. [...] People sitting like sardines in a can. Old women come inside of pools in their everyday clothes and are sitting there for hours. They also eat there and all the food in the water, really disgusting."
These days, the shore is littered with scary warning signs. Do not leave the road. Do not enter the area after sunset. Beware of sinkholes. Beware of flooding. Beware of open pits.

To actually get to an accessible beach, we have to drive halfway around the sea to Ein Bokek. Here, gigantic hotel buildings rise up against martian desert mountains. The water of the dead sea is dark and slick, a little slimy even. The ground is covered in sharp balls of salt crystals that you should try to not cut your feet on, because... well you wouldn't wanna rub salt in that wound would you?

And of course I knew that people float in here, but I still didn't expect it to feel quite this way — I figured you'd have to float on your back or something, but you can literally just stand in the bottomless water and your shoulders will poke out. It's pretty neat.

spring time

Two rivers flowing from springs in the mountain form gorges in the landscape filled with deep green vegetation. The water flows and collects in all sorts of natural pools.
You can walk through knee-deep water, climb down some rocks and shower in a waterfall in a cave overgrown by trees and tall grasses. It's around noon, and the 33°C take their toll, but the water is fresh and cool. We hike up through the desert to the Ein Gedi spring, which flows from a lovely picturesque pond shaded by trees. It's all very lush and beautiful and satisfying — I feel like I could walk on forever like this, from spring to spring and basin to basin, following the water through the heat.
There's also a population of ibex here that climb the implausible cliffs and nibble on any branches they can find. They flock to the springs just like the tourists do, and it's quite adorable to watch them stretch on their hind legs to pull down some tasty leaves.