Today was our second offshore excursion being a river cruise to see the famous Three Gorges. We joined our Ferry Boat at the wharf which took us down the Daning River to the entrance to the Dragon Gate Gorge the first of the three gorges.
Our English speaking guide explained how the water is to rise to the 175 metre mark that is shown all along the river bank. Millions of people were moved to a higher ground so that this project could be done. You can see by the attached photos that the city was moved high above the intended water mark and a lot of work is still going on to shore up the sides of the gorges so that the water can rise safely.
The photo of the bridge over the Denning River shows the height that the water will go & it will be level with the bridge which is hard to imagine.
The Dragon Gate Gorge was fantastic with many interesting things pointed out along the way including a cave on the river bank that was used to hide treasures.
The next Gorge was the Misty Gorge & was just as beautiful. This was followed by the Emerald Gorge - magic. Along the way we saw the "Hanging Coffins"; limestone cliffs and in the heavily folliged areas there were small brown monkeys. They were hard to see at first but then we spotted some quite large families living along the river banks. We did not see a lot of bird life along the way.
There were a few little villages and remote farms along the way. The water was green & much cleaner than the Yangtze River where our big boat was moored.
Overall we had a great day and enjoyed the excursion through the gorges. The only downer for the day was that Fred lost his camera on the Ferry Boat.
To add a little salt to our wounds the "Yangtze boat moored next to our "Blue Whale" and their passengers had to disembark through our boat. You can see by the photo attached the difference in appearance from their "Five Star" and ours. The windows and the outside of our ship needed a big steam clean which is another reason why I think our ship was bought out of storage for this trip. No self respecting Captain would allow his boat to look like that.
When we got back on the ship we adjourned to the "special" lounge for a bit of relaxation (photos attached).
Images attached: "Yangtze" & "The Blue Whale" side by side; The 'new City' moved to higher ground; the Daning river; the 175 metre marker & bridge leading to the gorges; brown monkeys on the side of the river; on our boat deck (Blue Whale); Our group inside the Ferry Boat; Along the gorges; relaxation time in our 'special' lounge.
Videos: There are three videos of the gorges that you can view on www.youtube.com/jmmtravel First one is the Emerald Gorge; Second one is a family of brown monkeys living on the water edge of the gorges; third one is the Misty Gorge. They will give you a good image of what the cruise was like.
No comments:
Post a Comment