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Day 8 - Sailing through the Gorges
The next day, I followed the same routine of joining my British Yoga friend on the deck for some stretching exercises. By this time, the ship was passing through the first gorge and almost all the passengers were out on the open deck taking photos. Qutang Gorge, the first of the three gorges of the Yangtze River, and the one that is famous for its sheer and spectacular precipices. When you visit Qutang Gorge, you will find uniquely beautiful natural formations greeting you from every direction. In this section, the Yangtze River carves its way through the gorge between the sheer precipices that frame both sides of the river. Qutang's widest point is more than 150 meters (500 feet) and its narrowest point is about tens of meters. The steep precipices form a giant door where the tumultuous Yangtze bursts through in an exciting rush of rolling and roaring water. The river at this point is only a few hundred meters wide and the currents were rapid. The cliffs on both sides of the gorge were towering and it was absolutely breath taking. The passage of this gorge took about half hour. Everyone then hurried downstairs for breakfast so that they can be ready for the second gorge.
Wu Gorge (28 miles long) is the most beautiful section of the Yangtze River, flanked by high peaks that are often capped by fog or clouds. The steep slopes of the gorge are green with trees and bushes. The gorge was long known to be as dangerous as it is beautiful. It was a dangerous place for boat navigators, who faced dangers including whirlpools, quicksand, and currents that varied from hour to hour. As the river cuts its way through the Wushan mountains, its roaring currents change their directions constantly.
Wu Gorge is 45 kilometers (28 miles) long, extending from the mouth of the Daning River in the west to the north-bank town of Guangukou, in Badong County, in the east. The small trading town of Peishi marks the provincial border, where the river crosses from Sichuan Province into Hubei Province. Gorges are flanked by continuous rows of strange peaks, many of them also rising into the clouds.
It is now time for the most exiting part of our cruise. We will go on our excursion into Shennong stream which is not navigable in our ship. So we were divided into groups of about 15 people and were loaded into long row boats called Sampans. Shennong Stream, a tributary of the Yangtze River, rises in the southern part of the Shennongjia Natural Reserve. It joins the Yangtze at Xirangkou in Hubei's Badong County. With crystal clear water, this steam flows swiftly from north to south through deep gorges. A sampan tour will allow you to experience a high speed adventure along this newly opened unspoiled river. An arrow-like sampan glides through the four-kilometer-long Mianzhu Gorge and then enters the main stream of the Shennong. The boat glides over the cobble-strewn riverbed with its bottom often banging against the stones. It is not without risk yet exhilarating. It is thrilling to experience this battle with nature. The boatmen belong to a local minority tribe and their battle upstream against a fiercely resisting roadway of water, The irresistible force of the bronze skinned boatmen's teamwork and cooperation and their semi-naked and well sculptured bodies provided a lot of thrill and excitement to all the women in our Sampans!!
We returned to our mother ship just in time for lunch. In the afternoon, we will pass through the last of the three gorges, also the longest , the Xiling Gorge. Comprising many dangerous rapids and currents, Xiling Gorge starts at Badong County and zigzags for 76 kilometers (47 miles) down to the Nanjin Pass in Yichang. It is the longest part of the Three Gorges system with dangerous rapids collectively known as the Three Rapids of Xiling. After the day's hectic activities and having passed through two of Gorges, most people jut went about other business such as shopping, beauty shop or just hanging out on the deck with cold beer. The passage through this gorge will take us about 2 hours and at the end of this we will reach the massive ship locks near the Three River Gorges Dam. These locks will lower the ship in five steps to the downstream side after the dam. As an engineer, I was quite anxious to see this engineering marvel. I know such locks are in operation in the Suez and Panama Canals. However, this operation will take place during our dinner time, but we could still see the ship lowering at each stage through the windows.
Just before dinner, we entered the Three River Gorges dam site and the locks. As we entered this huge rectangular bath tub like concrete structure, massive steel doors closed behind us. These doors are about 3 feet thick and are water tight to keep the water from the upstream side entering the locks. After the door shut tight, huge pumps started pumping the water out of the tub thus lowering the ship to the next level which was about 50 feet. Once the water levels equalized on both sides, the downstream doors opened and the ship moved on to the next lock. It was absolutely amazing to see how quickly so much water is being displaced at each stage. It takes about 20 minutes for each stage and there are 5 stages before you reach the river's down stream side. While we were having dinner, this was going on outside and around 9:00 pm the ship finally cleared all the locks and started sailing in open water and docked for the night. Tomorrow we will reach Yichang, our disembarkation point and tour the dam site and the museum.