Dead Sea Mud Bath

A Highlight at our Lowest Point

For some: " Do you remember..?"  For others: " Have you ever heard of ... Flanders and Swan?"  First a quick reminder  just so that we are reading off the same page. Flanders and Swan were the names of a popular English comedy duo who entertained numerous Revue Theatre goers in the 1950s and 60s. They would present clever, amusing songs which they had composed themselves. One such song that I remember was entitled The Hippopotamus Song, the chorus of which went:

                Mud, mud, glorious mud,

                Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood.

                So follow me, follow, down to the hollow,

                And there let us wallow in glorious mud. 

OK, no prizes for guessing why this particular song came to mind during our visit to the Dead Sea and the mud treatment there. I wonder, however, how many of us would have opted for this rather dirty treatment if Graeme and Gail had not forced it upon us? A few comments I overheard on the bus driving down there seemed to indicate a reluctance. Yes, we were cajoled into tasting the experience. Perhaps not tasting.

Having accepted their gift (thanks to both of you!) we applied it as best we could often with a little help from a friend. It felt so slithery and slimy, so smooth and sensuous, that it had to be good for us.

When it all boils down we are all kids at heart, wanting to play in the mud.

I was very surprised at its feel and I am no stranger to mud. As a child I was constantly exposed to it, playing in it, eating it, creating with it, throwing it, tramping through it.

An example: the local creek also doubled as our swimming pool. The main swimming hole, just down from Jimmy Logan's place, was deep, long and wide - well to us kids anyway - with clear, clean water. The banks consisted of rich, fertile, black loam, the signature of the Lockyer Valley in Queensland. As a hot Saturday afternoon wore on, these banks became wetter and wetter, slippier and slippier and muddier and muddier. Teams were chosen and the mud fight began. The clear, clean home of the resident Jew fish and eels soon became a muddy water hole being totally abused by a group of shouting, shiny, black kids.

Compared with the Dead Sea mud our Tent Hill Creek mud had a similar colour but the texture contrasted greatly.  The small stones, the grit, the small sticks and rotting vegetation  which were part of its fertility, added an extra dimension to its feel. And they heightened its impact. Bruises, scratches and sore eyes were often after-marks of our Saturday afternoon fun. And maybe, I'm thinking, our mud-baths were just as healthy as these Dead Sea equivalents. After all they were accompanied by vigorous exercise.

Undoubtedly the Dead  Sea packs have a very high concentration of salts and minerals. I have read there are about 35 present. The main ones are magnesium, sodium, potassium, calcium, bromide - a regular chemistry lesson. And these are able to produce some healthy results.

Prevent hair loss ( Can't give my childhood mud fights a tick for this).

Reduce the appearance of cellulite (No comment here).

Reduce arthritic knee pain ( the way most of us were running around the Dead Sea seemed to indicate that this was the case).

Improve the look of facial skin ( I'll leave you and your mirror to give a verdict on this).

Three happy mud larks enjoying a cleansing mud bath.

This all added up to many photographs of shining white teeth and a lot of good, healthy fun.

Advertisers note: If you want to relive this therapeutic experience you can order packets of Dead  Sea mud on the net and bring it right into your own home.

Mud, mud, glorious mud,

Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood....