Sometime in the early morning, we docked in Baidi, where only one of our group opted for an optional morning tour. We enjoyed a leisurely start to the day, anticipating our mid-morning entrance into the first of the three gorges. The skies were clearing so the day was shaping up to be a beauty.
A word or two about our boat, the President 1. This is supposed to be a five star boat, but we would rank it more at three stars. It’s nice, the staff are very friendly and helpful and the food has been excellent, but the boat itself is a little tired. I might note that compared to other boats we’ve passed on the river this one is the best looking one, which means there’s a lot of scary crap floating down the Yangzte and I don’t just mean the garbage floating in the water.
Before we sailed to the gorge region, we had a pearl demonstration. We learned that to judge the value of a pearl, you could basically follow this rule: Big, Round and Shiny. So, if you find a big, round and shiny one, it should be expensive. We also learned how to differentiate between real and fake. Real pearls are cooler, less perfect, heavier and rougher then fake ones. They also give off a residue, if rubbed against something.
Shortly after we set sail, we were in the first of the three gorges, the Qutang Gorge. Although still slightly hazy, the views were pretty spectacular.
Within an hour we were cruising through the Wu Gorge. This one was actually more spectacular than the last. Although I snapped a lot of pics, none of them did the majesty of our surroundings any justice. It’s one of those “you had to be there” moments.
Once we were through the Wu Gorge, we transferred to a smaller boat that took us up a tributary of the Yangzte called the Shennongxi Stream. With the rise in water depth due to the dam, this is now a river comparable to the Grand back home, only seriously deeper and slightly more scenic.
After about 10 kilometres, we transferred to little flat-bottomed canoes/sampans that held our group of 13.
Each boat had four rowers, three in the bow and one in the stern and one man on the rudder. They rowed us for another 5 kilometres at a pretty good clip.
They used to have to use trackers to pull the boats through shallow water but these days with the new water depths, they’re not really necessary. They did however give us some “token tracking” when we reached as far up the stream as we were going. Two front rowers jumped onto shore and pulled the boat along with a long braided rope.
Retracing our route back down the stream, we returned to the boat in time for dinner, with happy hour at our room on this night. Each meal we have been served by the young lady shown below, named Katrina – her English name. She had been doing this job for only 2 weeks and was a tourism student at University.
After dinner, we had a little show featuring some passenger talent – our group led the room in the chicken dance – and I got involved in a game swinging a ball between my legs, which had to push a little box along the floor.
Before bedtime, we reached the Three Gorges dam and the locks. We went up on the sundeck to watch the entry to the first lock and then we were lights out. The ship took 6 hours to clear all 5 locks.
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