Another early departure- 7:00 for the trip to the Three Lesser Gorges. This trip, up and down the Daning River, was aboard a motorized sampan.
The river is very wild- with rapids and it was a tough haul for the boat to make it upstream. The trip, 20 miles, took 3 hours up and 2 hours down. The scenery was spectacular- being in a small boat looking up at huge peaks. We got to see some of the famous hanging coffins and a few monkeys. We also got to get a good view of the original cuts in the rocks made for the ‘trackers”- the men who pulled the boats by hand through the canyons. They cut holes into the rock and set up planks of wood with minimal supports and these men, tied together would manually pull the boats up river. If one fell, the rest of the crew had to be ready to quickly cut him from the group and let him fall into the river.
In the afternoon, we passed through the last of the Three Gorges, Qutang Gorge, the shortest (5 miles), but the wildest. The river narrows to 300 feet and traffic is only one way.
Dinner was with our self-selected group- Herb, Sandy, Don and Ann…
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