Saturday 9th. August
At 600 hours there was already coffee and tea. I forgot to take them because the view from the deck was absolutely stunning. Misty and a very small sun nevertheless once again it was so captivating. A very hard wind blew hot and dry air and a child would have been blown over the deck. Breathtaking experience. at 700 we had breakfast and went up the deck again.

At 10.30 we had another shore excursion to the Shennong stream. This time we used a catamaran jetfoil boat to sail into one of the gorges of the YangTze and from there alight with wooden sampans through mountain streams which were so undeep at points that boat porters had to pull up the sampans over the rocks. In olden times these porters were almost naked (you would get wet anyway) and must have been a sight, muscular and swarthy with these woven bamboo ropes pulling the sampans. Nowadays they're clad better.

When we came to the end of the steam cruise, we got out from the sampans and the passengers all with their swimming vests discovered how wonderful the mountain stream actually was. the water was cold and clear and clean. Someone just went overboard fully clothed, others took their pants off, an australian lady plunged into the water and soon all passengers were in the water. A happy pandemonium. So what, the boat had a good laundry and with that heat (nearly 40¾C) you could only dry up.

After we cruised back with the jetfoil, we had a shower and had a lunch again. The suggestion was that everybody should be masqueraded as pirates as were the ships crew. We were promised dimsum but got another sumptuous lunch instead. I wouldn't complain.

More deck viewing of the last Gorge. A Gorge is a ravine with a river streaming through its bed. The gorges were stunning as they were so steep and deep. Mighty natural ravines. Then we had another entertaining evening but now the (younger) passengers were asked to participate in several games. Laughter and shrieks as the guys and galls slipped their way on a slippery floor, reminds me of the student nights in one's life. Then another performance of crew doing folklore dances ending in a another exhausting and plentiful dinner. I imagine this would be a Valhalla for persons with a very big appetite and so ended one of the most actively captivating and memorable days.

Index page

Yang Tze the first day

Yang Tze the second day

Yang Tze the fourth day

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