Gorgeous Gorges

I had been looking forward to some clean mountain air to fill my lungs with ... but of course the river is heavily used for transport and so is full of diesel-fume-belching vehicles. Still, smog causes beautiful sunrises!

Most of the time, away from the main cities, the fumes weren't so bad - it was just plain misty, as you would expect with mountains and rivers.

The mountains are steep and rugged, even though a large part of them is now hidden beneath the water. (At this place there was a cablecar, you can just see the cars above the wisps of mist.)

Often it was hard to see the tops of the surrounding mountains through the clouds and mist.

All along the river the houses were built up away from the water, everyone is getting ready for the final stages of the river flooding when the dam is finished in 2009.

There are frequent signs, telling where the water will rise to next, in October (the lower sign) and where the final level should be. The lower levels read 156.3 metres (above the original water level) and the upper ones are 175 metres.

It was fun to look at the houses and judge which ones - still inhabited and with delightful gardens down to the water's edge - were in fact doomed and the owners were just trying to use up the last moments with one last crop.

We saw whole new cities perched on the tops of mountains - the original city lies beneath the water, a rather eerie thought that makes us think of the movie "Waterworld".

This city is preparing for the next rise, this open area is where they have removed the buildings in preparation.

Doomed Bridge

We had to get off our large cruiser for an excursion through the "lesser gorges". As we rode a ferry boat under this magnificent bridge we were told it was built in 1988 but was destined to be demolished very soon - as soon as its replacement higher up was finished - because the final water level would be only ten metres below the bridge (preventing ships from passing under).

Monkeys Sink Ferry

The ferry was fully loaded, and the loud speakers were blaring information about the gorge we were passing through. A bilingual guide was walking around on the deck talking to each English-speaker in turn and explaining what was coming up. We were all staring hard at the river banks looking for the promised monkeys.

Suddenly someone saw one. A shout went up, and to my amazement everyone rushed to that side of the boat. I was imagining the headlines in the papers ... but, really, the ferry didn't seem to list at all.

All the same, when I later caught sight of these monkeys I quietly pointed them out to Peter, but no one else.

River Raft Rides

We had been told (but were unable to confirm it on our Chinese language itinerary) that we would be taking raft rides. As we reached the end of "Misty Gorge" and the river was narrower we were bundled into these smaller boats - it was the closest we came to a 'raft'.

They called this one "Emerald Gorge", and the water certainly was an amazing colour.

The waterway was quite narrow, and echoed the strange sounds of the "ethnic singers" that were around every bend with their megaphones.

Here the air was much cleaner, the water crystal clear, and the scenery glorious.

All-in-all it made for a delightfully relaxing day out.