Volcanic thermal
Soothing salubrious mud
Clean up’s gonna be a bitch
A few years ago I had the pleasure of visiting the amazing country of New Zealand. While there, treated myself to a hot mud bath. The mud was made from fine, volcanic ash so while it felt amazing, it also got embedded in virtually every nook and cranny.
-Sometimes you just have to get dirty.
In response to the Weekly Photo Challenge: Treat
I am a scientist by trade and artist by soul. My creative outlet used to be dancing but due to injuries and age, I must now find another path. I am hoping my writing, poetry and photography can be this new path.
Awards: While I am grateful and honored for the numerous nominations, I don’t have time to respond to them with the attention they deserve, so for the most part, I am an award free blog.
All photographs and words are mine unless otherwise credited.
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Dancing Echoes 
October 31, 2015 at 6:13 pm
That looks good! Haven’t done a mud bath, but the Blue Lagoon in Iceland hit the spot when we were there.
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October 31, 2015 at 6:14 pm
Oooooh, I’ll bet that was nice!
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October 31, 2015 at 8:42 pm
I’m not sure I would like getting a mud bath. What is the benefit of it?
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October 31, 2015 at 9:01 pm
LOL, not sure it would be worth the cleanup required!!
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October 31, 2015 at 9:09 pm
Hot mineral springs and mud baths are said to be restorative. This mud was quite warm so it made my joints feel better and my skin was soft after was I was finally able to wash it all off. It was mostly just the experience of trying something new while I had the chance. I will say the down side was that as with most of these thermals, the sulfur smell was horrendous until it finally saturated my nose into numbness.
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October 31, 2015 at 9:11 pm
This mud was so fine it passed through the fabric of my bathing suit. I though I was going to have to burn it.
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November 1, 2015 at 1:16 am
That looks like fun!
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November 1, 2015 at 1:20 am
Oh it was!
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November 1, 2015 at 1:22 am
What was it like? Did it smell and how did it make you feel after?
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November 1, 2015 at 1:32 am
Smelled like rotten eggs. The mud was soft and very hot. It was fall at the time so the air was chilly and the available showers to cleaned up were downright freezing. Overall the opposite sensations were invigorating.
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November 1, 2015 at 1:38 am
Sounds like it… The cold shower after the hot bath must have got the heart pumping! lol
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November 1, 2015 at 9:21 am
Makes me want to try it! 🙂
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November 1, 2015 at 9:22 am
You would not be sorry -even with the mess.
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November 2, 2015 at 5:01 am
Must try this when I go to NZ; it’s just across the ditch, as we say. Is the sulphur smell H2S? If so, you know we are very sensitive to it, like sub PPB but then at higher concentrations we lose it. Apologies if you already know this and I’m teaching you to suck (rotten) eggs.
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November 2, 2015 at 5:31 am
Yes. We detect H2S at low ppb levels and but once it is so high that we stop smelling it, we are done for. In my case it was sensory burn out, not higher levels. No apologies needed. Just because I happen to know a little about this through my work doesn’t mean I can’t learn something new -and I like learning new things. Do try it NZ is wonderful. You’ll have to check out Lostworld too.
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November 2, 2015 at 5:53 am
I conduct olfactory panels in my work. I use n-butanol as it just stinks you out at high concs. H2S has been used by some labs for research.
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November 2, 2015 at 6:00 am
Very cool!
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November 2, 2015 at 6:04 am
I’m curious, what are the tests for? Your work sound fascinating.
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November 2, 2015 at 6:08 am
https://regionalcognisance.wordpress.com/2015/10/02/sense-of-smell-olfactometry/
This should help
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November 2, 2015 at 6:49 am
Thank you for sharing this. I’m afraid I got behind on reading posts and I never seem to be able to catch up. I have heard of odor panels for drinking water – mostly for MIB Geosmin and we use meters for H2S on our landfills. This looks like a whole industry in itself.
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November 2, 2015 at 7:29 am
It is indeed a whole industry in itself. I have trouble keeping up with all the posts. I’m batch reading tonight because tomorrow is a public holiday. Odour is not my specialty; really oil spill analysis by GC. But we’re all jack of all trades these days. 🙂
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November 2, 2015 at 7:52 am
OMG we have a lot in common. I am at work now but I will have to explore this commonality more later.
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November 30, 2015 at 11:25 am
Lovely capture – isn’t it what we wanted to do when we were child
– now we can do it without a mum saying no… 😀
Have tried it too, give a good skin feeling,
by the way the icelandic Blue Lagoon close to Keflavik with ‘hot’ water from the underground absolutly worth to try too… 🙂
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November 30, 2015 at 11:47 am
Oooh, that does sound good! Thank you.
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