Saturday, November 6
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The High Road to Tiger Leaping Gorge
The next morning I picked at breakfast with no real appetite. Exhausted, I slept in the middle seat of the van that had become the "recovery" location for the ill. This seat had much less bouncing around than the rear one that Kathy and I usually occupied. Again, the winding mountain roads and views of snowy mountains n the horizon, and fields and villages below us were quite spectacular. However, I slept through most of them.
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| David takes a photo of the Yangtze River |
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| Tour buses line the road to the Gorge |
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| Calm at the beginning of the drive |
The road through the Gorge was very dramatic. Perched along the edge of the mountain, the road had numerous rock slides and washout areas, and even turned into a narrow gravel path in some places. Huge rock overhangs loomed above us, while far below the Yangtze thundered through the narrow rocky creating huge whirlpools. Further along the river widened and calmed, but the steep, rugged mountainside was still imposing.
A rock in the midst of the river at its fiercest inspired the name as a tiger supposedly leapt across the river to safety at this point. One of the deepest gorges in the world, this is where the Yangtze River flows from the Snow Mountains on the Qinghai Plateau on its journey to the sea. I rallied for a few photos and a brief walk, but slept through a lot.
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| The road deteriorated with rockslides and washouts |
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| Snow mountains shadow open fields and patches of what remains of the forest |
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| A small farming village |
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| A logging truck passes a cow field |
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