Our next day on the cruise led us into the first of the Three Gorges, the Qutang Gorge. Our friendly neighbourhood River Guide, Campbell, gave us a running commentary of our journey through the shortest of the Three Gorges. After lunch, we got off the boat again, but this time we were herded into small boats for a trip up the Daning River to see the Lesser Three Gorges. Here we saw the Hanging Coffins, and local monkeys :). About an hour and a half into the journey, we had to transfer to even smaller craft for the final section of the river, again a very interesting journey. We then reversed the boat hopping on our way back to the main cruise boat.
After some complimentary tea and biscuits in the afternoon, we approached the second, and longest of the Three Gorges, the Wu Gorge. This was again accompanied by the commentary from our River Guide. Once we exited the gorge, I left Rosie reading her book while I went to “Chinese 101” to try to learn some more Mandarin. A very fun lesson, but unfortunately only really covered what I have already learnt. This was soon followed by the Victoria Farewell Banquet, otherwise known as dinner, and a cabaret including acts from both the crew and some passengers.
The finale to the evening was our passage through the shiplocks at the Three Gorges Dam Project. The lockmaster changed his mind on the time we could pass through the locks a few times, but eventually we started dropping at 2315. Six ships entered the lock, and after 9 mins, and 190m litres of water, we were 20m lower, so onto the next one.
Our final day on the Yangtze cruise arrived early. Having stayed up late to see the first 2 shiplocks, we were up again for breakfast at 0700 so we could see the Dam project in daylight before moving on. The dam is a very impressive feat of engineering, but not the prettiest of sites! Once back on the boat, we continued on through the final gorge, the Xiling Gorge, another short gorge, much the same as all the others with a rousing commentary from our illustrious river guide once again. A mad panic ensued shortly after the gorge while all and sundry packed their kit in time for an early lunch before disembarking at 1230. The cruise was over, we think maybe a full cruise to Shanghai would be better next time because we didn’t want to leave. Ah well, onto the next stop … Shanghai.