Salton Sea

Last weekend we spent some time with our SA friends Jacques and Natasa in Palm Springs - and on Sunday we went for a drive to the Salton Sea. Its about 30minutes drive from where they stay and it's quite amazing that there is this massive body of water in the middle of the desert - stretching 43 miles long and 22 miles at its widest point. It's also the lowest body of water in continental North America - about 20 feet below sea level - and so you can imagine as with the Dead Sea that whatever flows into this "sea" doesn't flow out... thus its salt concentration is 45000 parts per million (with the sea it is 36000 parts per million). So its pretty salty!!! Also the stench was unbelievable! Apparently this "sea" formed when the Colorado river (that snakes through the Grand Canyon) overflowed its banks in 1905 and created this artificial sea in this low-lying strip of desert.
Here Clark & Jacques try to get closer to the water - its quite amazing that even on this fairly clear day you can't see the other side of the Salton Sea. Clark (ever the crazy scientist) wanted to test the waters - it was pretty murky, so that stopped him venturing any further than toe-deep! He did stick his hand into the water and after about 1 minute was complaining about how dry his hands were. Dis weens al die sjoute!!!