trouble.
I could see more ships coming slowly along in a stately line after the ship behind us. There were two locks side by side. The one next to us was empty but the Japanese ship was in the lock in front of us. Once the gate was shut people walked across the top of it on a footpath and in front of us was a cantilever bridge over which buses ferried workers. Water started to pour into the lock, and as the level slowly rose we went up with it.
The sides of the Canal were covered with dense, darkgreen jungle that on one side was cut by a road running along the edge. Hovering frigate birds with forked tails circled us while a troop of pelicans lumbered in our wake. Closer to the administration area a few houses stood, but there was still plenty of thick jungle with an occasional palm frond sticking out of it. The pilot told me that all the animals that could be found in Amazonia, with the exception of anacondas but including jaguars, could also be found in this jungle. He said that Panama was a very fine place to live and that he made two hundred thousand US dollars a year. Pity he wouldn’t play poker.
The water continued to rise. Only one ship at a time can fit into a lock that is one thousand metres long and fifty wide. That’s big enough for the QE2 – but, while the passage would cost that ship one hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars, the Atlanta had to pay only thirty-five to fifty thousand.
The Japanese ship that had been in front of us before was now in the lock alongside us. She was the Neptune , a car carrier, painted blue on the bottom and white on the top but up close I could now see that she was very rusty. We came out of the lock and, moving on, came level with the administration centre, which was fronted by five dilapidated train carriages standing on a rail line. There was no other housing so I presumed that only canal workers lived here.
Waiting to go through the next lock we encountered the contraptions they call mules, which took the place of horses some years ago. Some swap! These mechanical monsters run on a track alongside the ship and are attached to it by ropes with which they haul the vessel up, up, into the next lock. Then we were going down again. The water falls nine metres.
I descended to the lower deck to see what it was like at that level and stared at the walls of the lock as we crept through.
They were either made of old-looking metal or carved out of rock and bolstered every now and then by a great beam of wood. Some of these beams were badly splintered as though something big had hit them – no doubt it had.
Ahead I could see a tug pushing the Japanese ship into a lock and as we approached the last lock we managed to pass this ship. Passing is not allowed outside the locks but can be done in them. The Neptune had broken something so we came out of the locks ahead of her. A little further on we passed a ship that was lying half submerged on its side on the canal bank. A sad sight, it looked as though it had gone aground and tipped over.
By this time I was desperate for breakfast. As soon as I had supervised the Atlanta safely through the locks and out onto the Gaton Lake, I went below.
We followed a channel marked by buoys through the immense body of water that is the Gaton Lake. In the middle of the lake were a great many tiny islands, remnants of land that had been flooded. Again, they were covered in thick green jungle and they had no shore line – the jungle flowed all the way down to the water. The lake was very calm. The water was the oily green colour of an aventurine gem stone and it was disturbed only by faint ripples from the soft wave made by our slow advance. From between two islands of vegetation behind us a ship loomed up in our wake, looking enormous compared to the tiny islands. Behind that I could see another two ships and in front there was one more.
One-and-a-half hours later we were still on the flat dark water of the lake. There was no sign of
I could see more ships coming slowly along in a stately line after the ship behind us. There were two locks side by side. The one next to us was empty but the Japanese ship was in the lock in front of us. Once the gate was shut people walked across the top of it on a footpath and in front of us was a cantilever bridge over which buses ferried workers. Water started to pour into the lock, and as the level slowly rose we went up with it.
The sides of the Canal were covered with dense, darkgreen jungle that on one side was cut by a road running along the edge. Hovering frigate birds with forked tails circled us while a troop of pelicans lumbered in our wake. Closer to the administration area a few houses stood, but there was still plenty of thick jungle with an occasional palm frond sticking out of it. The pilot told me that all the animals that could be found in Amazonia, with the exception of anacondas but including jaguars, could also be found in this jungle. He said that Panama was a very fine place to live and that he made two hundred thousand US dollars a year. Pity he wouldn’t play poker.
The water continued to rise. Only one ship at a time can fit into a lock that is one thousand metres long and fifty wide. That’s big enough for the QE2 – but, while the passage would cost that ship one hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars, the Atlanta had to pay only thirty-five to fifty thousand.
The Japanese ship that had been in front of us before was now in the lock alongside us. She was the Neptune , a car carrier, painted blue on the bottom and white on the top but up close I could now see that she was very rusty. We came out of the lock and, moving on, came level with the administration centre, which was fronted by five dilapidated train carriages standing on a rail line. There was no other housing so I presumed that only canal workers lived here.
Waiting to go through the next lock we encountered the contraptions they call mules, which took the place of horses some years ago. Some swap! These mechanical monsters run on a track alongside the ship and are attached to it by ropes with which they haul the vessel up, up, into the next lock. Then we were going down again. The water falls nine metres.
I descended to the lower deck to see what it was like at that level and stared at the walls of the lock as we crept through.
They were either made of old-looking metal or carved out of rock and bolstered every now and then by a great beam of wood. Some of these beams were badly splintered as though something big had hit them – no doubt it had.
Ahead I could see a tug pushing the Japanese ship into a lock and as we approached the last lock we managed to pass this ship. Passing is not allowed outside the locks but can be done in them. The Neptune had broken something so we came out of the locks ahead of her. A little further on we passed a ship that was lying half submerged on its side on the canal bank. A sad sight, it looked as though it had gone aground and tipped over.
By this time I was desperate for breakfast. As soon as I had supervised the Atlanta safely through the locks and out onto the Gaton Lake, I went below.
We followed a channel marked by buoys through the immense body of water that is the Gaton Lake. In the middle of the lake were a great many tiny islands, remnants of land that had been flooded. Again, they were covered in thick green jungle and they had no shore line – the jungle flowed all the way down to the water. The lake was very calm. The water was the oily green colour of an aventurine gem stone and it was disturbed only by faint ripples from the soft wave made by our slow advance. From between two islands of vegetation behind us a ship loomed up in our wake, looking enormous compared to the tiny islands. Behind that I could see another two ships and in front there was one more.
One-and-a-half hours later we were still on the flat dark water of the lake. There was no sign of
Similar Books
