Yangtze River Cruise Day 2

At 7:30 we disembarked for a tour of the Three Gorges dam site. It was fascinating to see this huge project up close.
We were either on cruising speed or something was amiss in our system- we slept off and on most of the afternoon – waking up when the boat came to the first of the three gorges, the Xiling Gorge.

The mountains rise forming a huge wall on both sides, pinching and speeding the river flow. Xiling is the largest of the three at 47 miles and is also known as the most dangerous, filled with rapids and whirlpools. To make the gorge safer to navigate, more than a hundred shoals and reefs were dynamited and it’s now lined with navigational buoys with all-weather beacons. They look like small dinghies and have to be relocated every few weeks since the channel changes so rapidly as the water rises and falls and silt is carried from bank to bank (the river is the color of caramel due to the heavy concentration of silt.).
A few hours later and we passed through Wu Gorge (Witches Gorge), 45 km.
We had a wine, cheese and fruit party in our room for dinner and crashed early.