Today is a relaxed start. We are not mooring until this afternoon. In the meantime we can take in the changing landscape before we reach our first Gorge.
To enter the Gorge we need to go through a lock. Everyone is really excited about it this. It is anticipated that we will go thrift the lock around 9.45 am.
When we woke this morning we were surprised to see we had docked for about an hour. Apparently we were too early for our slot so was killing time.
I love sitting watching the world by. It’s fascinating seeing how they use the river in so many ways. High rise apartments are everywhere. The town we are now sailing through has over 2 million people. Coming from an estate of only 99 houses and being surrounded by fields, I can’t imagine living here!
After breakfast we look out of our balcony and see the first of 3 dams which we will pass through. We quickly grab our cameras and go up to one of the higher decks to get a better view.
We are going to go into one of the locks and be raised up over 20 metres. I think most of the passengers have joined us on the 2 upper decks to watch this.
A chinese cruise ship goes through first. It’s amazing how quick it seems to complete – under 10 minutes.
Then it’s our turn to go in. I record it for my YouTube channel. We are in and out in around 7 minutes.
Once through the scenery takes my breath away! We are now going through the first gorge and it’s stunning. It’s very rural. No more high rises. Houses are tucked away into the hillside. Small fishing boats now take the place of the large commercial boats.
It is exactly what I was hoping to see. We are currently sailing through Xiling Gorge. We pass a goat at the bottom of one of the cliffs . We haven’t a clue how it even got there. This is definitely China at its most remote. I really can’t wait for our trip this afternoon. In the meantime we are going to sit back and enjoy the view! Life doesn’t get much better than this !
As we sail towards the bigger dam the skyline does change slightly with a few high rise but nothing like we have seen previously.
Our trip today is to the dam project where you get to see an even bigger dam which we will pass through tonight. When I say it’s huge, I’m not kidding! It even has a boat lift for small boats to speed up their passage.
After getting through a security check you travel up some escalators to get a birds eye view of the dam. It apparently produces 1.4% of China electricity which surprised me. It just goes to show how much the country uses if something so big produces such as small percentage, especially when they say it’s the biggest one in the world.
Today there has been a constant haze and high humidity so I’m dying to get a shower. As we are so hot, hubby suggests we stop at the bar for a cold drink first. It would be rude not to. Carey who took us to our room works in the bar on the 4th floor but initially Leo served me. Leo usually serves me drinks during the day so immediately asked if I wanted a Diet Coke. This is what I love about Viking, the staff pay attention to their guests and try to preempt their needs. When I asked for fizz that obviously wasn’t a problem he just needed to get a new bottle. In the meantime Carey has arrived and immediately asked if we would like fizz and beer. When we said Leo was sorting he asked us to take a seat and he would serve us. He is such a lovely guy. Always smiling. All the staff are brilliant on this ship!
Finally we head for a shower. Tonight is cocktail night for returning clients which we are! I’m looking forward to that.
So the cocktail party wasn’t how I expected from the point of view I didn’t see a single cocktail!
It was lovely talking to the crew about the previous trip we did and the disaster that happened on one of the sea cruises.
As we ate dinner we went started to head towards our second dam. Oh wow. It was stunningly beautiful with its changing colours.
As hubby wasn’t feeling great we decided up sit on our balcony and enjoy Kellie and Joe’s champagne while watching us go through the dam. What we hadn’t really thought about was our view !
Yep – not exactly wow is it !! It takes a few hours to get through so sleep took over before we were out of it!
Slimminginspirations4u 