We exited the water a short walk from the opening of the Crown Cave the evening before. When we started paddling in the morning we came past the on-the-water entrance to the cave and turned to paddle in. There was a boat-ride here where people are poled into the cave on boats built to look like old Li River fishing boats. This “ride” was closed when we arrived the day before and we had missed it. As we got close to the mouth of the cave the operators of the boat concession started yelling at us. Turns out they didn’t want any freeloaders getting to see the cave without paying them first! We turned away in disgust.
A few hundred meters downstream we found some smaller caves, mere dents in the cliff really. But we ducked into them anyway just to prove to ourselves that we didn’t need to pay to go in a cave! Farther down the river I found another cave that was navigable farther in. However, there was a bamboo raft tied up inside it and this made me wonder if someone was living in there. I didn’t want to intrude on someone’s bedroom so I backed out and didn’t explore that cave either.
We were now more than half way between the towns of Guilin and Yangshuo, so instead of driving back out the bad road to Guilin we went directly to a hotel in Yangshuo this evening. Yangshuo was a town built in a narrow valley with karsks looming over it on all sides. These were lit up at night and gave me the impression of ancient Chinese gods standing around the town looking down at us.
