Two of the gorges and the ship lock

Sunday March 29^th…

The morning started with another great breakfast. After breakfast there was an information session on pearls. I learned all the tricks on how to tell if a pearl is real or not. It was informative but I felt bad for the presenter, she was so nervous to give a presentation in English she stumbled over her words a bunch of times and at one point I thought she was going to pass out, she turned so pale. But she made it, and I was able to even learn something from the presentation.

So it was turning out to be a gorgeous day! We went up to the sundeck and laid down to just enjoy the beautiful day. We had some time to kill so Caitlin ended up taking pictures with the Chinese people. She was having her own little photo shoot, all of the Chinese men wanted a picture with her. It was very entertaining to sit back and watch.

About an hour or so passed It was time to enter the first gorge. The first Gorge is Qutang. It was stunningly beautiful!!! There were mountains and rocks along both banks of the river. When we first entered the gorge we were in-between rock walls. Everything was extremely green. Every once in a while we would see a random house or a small village tucked away into the mountainside. We were able to see some farm fields and every once in a while there would be a small waterfall.

There was a short break in-between the first gorge and the second one, so I was able to get a shower in and then head back up to the sundeck. The second gorge (Wu Gorge) was just as beautiful as the first. The mountains were hovering on both sides of the Yangtze. The colors were vibrant and the sun was shining. These gorges are really unlike anything I ever could have imagined. Everything was so remote and it’s hard to imagine all of the families/cities that had to be relocated because of the Three Gorges Dam Project.

We had a quick lunch and then we got off the boat for an excursion. We transferred to smaller boats to go up a tributary of the river. We went to Shennong Stream. First we got on a smaller motorboat. The gorge narrowed and we passed hanging coffins and local hillside villages after about 40 minutes the gorges widened ever so slightly and we transferred to smaller boats pulled by teams of ‘trackers’. The ‘trackers’ took us on a little tour while rowing this small boat. ‘Trackers’ were once the main method of pulling boats along parts of the Yangtze River. After tracking upstream, the boats were released to cruise back down with the current before joining the ferries. The stream that we went through was extremely remote and magnificent; it was one of those things that I never would have experienced on my own, so thank God for going on that cruise!!

After a great excursion we were back on the ship and it was time for dinner. We had another great meal and then went upstairs to enjoy a talent show. Guests of the ship and some of the staff sang and danced and everyone seemed to really enjoy him or herself. Besides Caitlin and I there was only one other American on the ship. He sang karaoke and it was hilarious. If more people on the ship spoke English everyone would have been going crazy. He had a good way of getting the crowd going and personalizing the song to make it fit with our cruise.

Just as the entertainment for the evening concluded we were preparing to enter the first of the 5-step ship lock at the Three Gorges Dam.

The ship locks were incredible. Talk about modern marvels!! We were the first ship in so we had to wait about an hour for the other 4 ships to get set up. Watching these ships get parked so close together was unbelievable. After all of the ships were situated the gate behind us closed and the water level decreased. It was a rather quick process to get down to the water level of the next step…at which point the front gate opened and all of the ships moved as a unit into the next lock. Each lock took about 45 minutes by the time all of the ships got situated and the water was let out and then the ships moved out of it. I stayed on the deck and watched the first 2½ locks but it was getting late and each one took so long that I couldn’t last any longer. I finally decided to call it a night after a gorgeous day surrounded by brilliant beauty.