Oi! So here we go! Next installment! I got reminded today that I have other unfinished reports, and I *SO* want to finish this one *before* I go to Iceland! Let's see if I can do it!
Day 9 - Lijiang River Riders
So, today was another day that I had really been looking forward to, thanks to pxlbarrel and Cousin Orville’s Trip Reports. Their photos of the mysterious Gumdrop Mountains along the Li River were just spectacular and intriguing!
The day started out a bit rainy and wet, but Jenny, our local Guide assured us that the Gumdrop Mountains looked much better in bad weather than in good.
Breakfast was still the typical mix of breakfast foods and entrees I just couldn’t face. This day, I actually found my normal cereal that I eat at home, so that was kind of nice. The dragon fruit they had was spectacularly delicious. Here’s the view I had during breakfast. It wasn’t *too* hot, but the rain definitely made it humid!
After breakfast, we drove a bit of a distance to where we were to pick up our boat for our cruise down the Li River. We unfortunately were missing a couple of people today, due to illness.
Boarding our boat. We were not the only folks on this cruise, but we had a large area for our group.
It had stopped raining, but the clouds still looked ominous. It *did* give the area a cool, mysterious look!
Inside the ship *was* air-conditioned, which made it nice, although for a period of time, the windows were all fogged up until things equalized a bit.
We were provided tea while on the cruise, but apparently the kitchen didn’t pass muster, because we had box lunches from the hotel that we had ordered ahead of time. The box lunches were very good – sandwiches and fruit and chips and such, but some things, like the chips, had a very different sort of seasoning to them. Some people liked it, some did not. But there was enough in the boxes that I don’t think anyone went hungry.
Joe, me and Ralph, enjoying some tea.
Ralph and the amazing Jenny (who is now an
ABD Adventure Guide! SO well deserved!)
This part of the trip was a *VERY* welcome interlude from the overall pace of the trip. We just floated down the beautiful river for around 3 ½ hours. You could sit inside, or head outside or up to the roof, take photos, watch the river and people go by, listen to Jenny talk about what it was like to hike some of the Gumdrop mountains, listen to Ralph or Joe or Jenny tell us about the various areas we were passing, and take a kajillion photos. It was quite peaceful and lovely, and a wonderful way to pass the morning.
The gorgeous Gumdrop Mountains definitely do look cool and mysterious shrouded in clouds and mist.
Occasionally we passed some horses and small buildings along the banks.
The mists did start to lift as we went along, although it hung on in the background for a while.
Continued in next post.