The standard breakfast routine. The photo at the right is of our breakfast crew. The two Franks on the right and Joe and Al are on the left.
Todays big adventure is the tour of the Three Gorges Dam project. And big it is the damn is nearly one and a quarter miles across and costing upwards of US $25 billion and taking 12 years to complete.
First stop on the tour is the exposition center for the construction company which features models of the whole project, plus models of the turbines, the ship elevator and of the shipping locks. The ship elevator is four years behind since it will be the worlds largest but it will cut down transit time from four hours (for the five lock system) to one half hour. The ship elevator will only handle smaller barges not the cruise ships the size of the Viking Sun.
The dam is working on finishing the last third of the project. That would be on the far left hand side of the model above. To the right is a picture of the ship canal in operation. It took us about three and a half hours to make the transit because the fifth lock isnt built yet. When they build the next lock starting at the end of this year, they will have to shut shipping traffic down for a whole year also meaning that they will have to bus passengers on the cruise boats from one side of the dam to the other, a pain for all the cruise boats since theyll have to deal with the luggage as well.
I was taking a nap after the first lock transit, trying to get some more rest to speed my cold to its conclusion. A glass of scotch and a Benedryl knocked me right out.
The rest of the afternoon was spent cruising the Xiling Gorge.
The pollution haze is starting to clean up a bit Im sure its not helping my head cold any either.
We dock the ship in Badong one of the many towns that have expanded rapidly as resettlement areas for the people who farms and houses have bee claimed for the dam project. With the river level changing so frequently most docks are actually barges that can go up or down with the water level.
Dinner is served Chinese family style this evening with many dishes some nice a spicy. Marty and I uncork our second bottle of the French wine that we bought on special for Y138 (about US $14). We still have two more bottles reserved for the coming nights. Its a good wine at much less than anything else on the list apparently a close out by the beverage manager.
I retire very early tonight excusing myself from the table, reading a couple of pages, turning off the air conditioner and pulling the covers up. Time to sleep on the cold.
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