A TRIP.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 April 1924, Page 4

A TRIP.

DOWN THE DEAD SEA. JERUSALEM, February 10. During the war there was a branch of tho British Navy on,the Dead Sea—one launch with one machine-gun. It used to be said by our fellows while wo were spending that happy time in the Jordan Valley, that none of us will ever forget, that when you got down to the south end of the Dead Sea, the water was so buoyant and so full of salt that you had to get out of the boat and stand on the water and press the boat down so that tho propeller would grip. As nothing so distinguished the Australian soldier as his strict regard for truth, we must believe that this was correct, In that case, having just had the good luck to have a four days’ expe 'ition loom! the wide a ; .st of this traordinnry lake in a launch, I am reluctantly compelled to write and inform my Anzac comrades that times have changed, things arc not what they were, and I found I coukl do no more than float with half my body out of the water when I tried it at the very foot of the great cliffs of pure rock-salt against which the water washes at the south end of the Dead Sea. NOAH’S TRADE MARK.

We were a large party that went, twenty in all; we camped on the shore at night, and had a launch and some sort of big-bellied sailing boat to tow behind it, by which we travelled from place to place. Ihe first view of t.e boats was distinctly disquieting; someone asserted tliat Noah’s trade-mark was plainly visible on them, and no ) lant had been put on since his famous trip. However, they did their job. The weathore caii he pretty had at this time of year, a lid a nasty choppy sea. rail get up very quickly. We had one firstrate pessimist on hoard, the sort who oi' two possible evils can always he trusted to choose both; he had been the trip before, and he could always he trusted to produce sortie reminiscences to damp our spirits. Last trip, we heard, the top-rope had broken, and the boat behind was left to wallow in a heavy sea with a Ice shore all cliffs _...for these come down to the water’s edge on the cast side in a very impressive way. Moreover, some of the last party had been so sea-sick that they had nearly died;, and as there was no other way home they had started off to walk home from the south-east of the Dead Sea via Mesopotamia ov Egypt, or it might have been Abyssinia. AVc implored him to toll us more to cheer us up, and he capped it off by looking up to the sky and saying that those clouds meant wind or rain or both.

We set our teeth, got our luggage aboard, and started; and the whole trip we had the greatest luck in weather. We pushed off from the Dead Bea Rost, and followed the shore eastward till we came to the mouth of the Jordan. You would think that a famous river like the Jordan, could do something better in the way of a mouth than this insignificant. reed-loggcd, mudpushing orifice; it ought to have a wonderful exit like that great cleft through which, as we found later, the Anion cuts its rapid way into tho sea. (>y a mile out to sea the water was thick with mud from the Jordan, and the buoyancy was much less than ch-xv.'hoic.

Tt gives an idea of the enormous evaporation that takes place, that all this groat volume of water rushes into the* Dead Sea daily, and yet the level never rises (although it varies slightly in flood season.) STEAMING HOT. Our next call was Calirriioe, famous for its hoi sulphur springs; hut to anyone familiar with such places as Rotorua it proved a disappointment. Enterprising females of our (arty dashed ashore with bathing dresses hoping to wallow in delicious hot pools; iL ended ia paddling ankle-deep in one small pool. But the water as it ran out into the sea v-as steaming hot. So on to tlie mouth of the Anion; and this is magnificent, ’llie water has cut its way in the. ages through a sandstone gorge, and formed at its mouth a delta, rich with recd-heds who.-.e ica-

tliery white tops stand sixteen feet feet high, and with willow, oleander, and castor oil. Some of* our party waded up to the stream and came hack dabbling of rushing torrents up to the chin and splendid dill’s of wonderful colouring, and a great water-la!! round the thirteenth corner of this very twisty stream. Meantime our crew had shown ns that there were fish in the A.ruon only a few foot from its mouth, and great crabs, though no living tiling swims in all the extent oi the Lead Sea (about 50 miles long by about twelve wide).

We camped here; our crew, a rare set of ragamuffins, who seemed to increase by picking up a Bedouin iecruil at each place we touched, here bought, a goat and a kid. We remarked that the kid did not seem over fond of its mother: hut They told us that was not its mother, hut its paternal grandfather. The kid spent one hallday as a pet before becoming a pie. Grandpa goat departed this lile at our next stopping place, on that curious tongue of land near iiie south end which the Arabs call the Lisan or tongue Moab was always a rude country, and that is the tongue it pokes out at Palestine. Wo arrived here just as the sun was painting sky and mountains, and water with the utmost glorious glows and tints that can he imagined. Wo said we would have a! noon tea, and dinner later; hut v,c could not keep the crowd off it. ant! developed into “nigh tea. ’ A dreary place it is; absolutely barren: and our j pessimist tnhl us that if the wind got up it would he under water before dawn; and the last party iliat, camped here had to stand off an attack ol jackals and hyenas with revolvers (1 think" he meant the humans had revolvers). A fire was lighted, a cup ot tea went to the right spot, and that wonderful camping miracle was worked—a spot of tlie dreaiiest desolation in the world had become quite a home. V) e were a serious party; we included a Bishop and an Archdeacon, and some soleninniinded females, so wo sat round fcb fire of drift-wood and told ghost stories. LOT’S WIFE. Next day took us to Jebel Usdum, where the sea washes the salt cliffs, where many people think the waters cover the ruins of Sodom and Gomrnorrah (Usdum is Sodom) where Lot’s wife has stood for centuries turned into a pillar of salt. (The Arabs call the whole sea “The Sea of Lot.”) Alas, there was clisppointment for us; Lot’s wife lias

tumbled into the water. Our crew, however, seemed to see no reason v. anyone of a dozen similar Salt pillar: that stood there should not he adopted, as Lot’s wife. Incidentally, oil the L* san we laid out some golf holes, and Lot’s lfogey must have been lowered at last, for one of us did a hole in one. Hero and elsewhere we tested the buoyancy of the water, and our camera 1 recorded the picture of a dozen people floating in a line, with sunshades over their heads, each reading a copy of the “Times.”

We were now on the homeward stretch, following the west coast. Past Masada, the fit scene for one of the most tlirilling sieges ever recorded, where the garrison at the last slew their wives and families and then themselves to the last man. It is told in Josephus; find anyone who was dissatisfied with his rations during our waV may lie interested to hear that

figs that had bean laid up in store for emergencies by Herod about a hundred years before. You never Kmitv when things will come in handy if you keep them long enough. Then on to camp at Engeddi there arc plenty- of oaves and wadys there whore we could imagine David cutting off the skirt of thud's robe and then poking fun at Abner, within earshot, hut out of spearshot or fear of pursuit. Then oh to a really delightful freshwater pool right by the side of the salt sea, called Ain Fe'sgkha. War reminiscences will illustrate the prevalence here of hot springs. A party of Anzaes one day went to Ain Fesgkhii and stripped to swim. After a bathe in the tingling oily salt water one could step only a couple of strides over the shingle and plunge into the crystal clear fresh water. Oae of the number saw some pebbles at tile bottom, and said he would dive for them and take them home rs souvenirs. Down he went and grabbed them; then up lic sl . lot - " aul as soon as his head emerged there was a bellow of language that seemed to indicate was was annoyed. There was a hot spring down there under the «old water, and he had run his hand into boiling hot mud.