Good Friday

Good Friday and another birthday. Richard was the lucky person and, as well as the cake Sarah seems to organise no matter where we are, he received a card from the Captain that we all signed, a fantastic memento of the day.

This morning's trip took us up the Shennong Stream, first in a ferry then on a sampan.

While on the ferry we saw some coffins perched high in the cliffs. Apparently this is the custom of the local minority group, the Zhuang People.

When the sampan reaches the rapids the crew jump out and pull the boat by ropes. Our local guide sang a traditional song while we travelled up the river and then the captain sang. Our local guide told us that there are two captains for the boat one steering and the other at the front of the boat. The other poor guys had to paddle and pull. Here they all are getting ready to pull our sampan over the rapids.

The afternoon brought more fantastic scenery as we travelled closer to Chongqing, the destination of the cruise. We managed to fit in a rehearsal for the farewell concert on the last night, we chose to do a tribute song for Sarah and had to keep it from her.

I recorded a segment of the Captain's song - couldn't embed it here but you should be able to access by clicking the link.