South to Niagara

Got up to find it was another hot and humid day. At 8am we left Toronto for the 130km drive south to Niagara Falls. It is Victoria Day today - a public holiday, and we were expecting a lot of traffic on the roads but traffic actually was quite light. We made good time on the freeways and expressways that form the route, and as the roads basically followed the coast of Lake Ontario for the majority of the route, we really got a feel for how huge Lake Ontario really is.

The power of the falls

We arrived at about 9.30am and found parking easily - clearly the tourists here do not get started until later in the day. We walked across the road to the railings where you can get a fantastic view of the Niagara River as it thunders down the Horseshoe Falls - it really is an amazing sight. The width of the river, the length and shape and height of the falls (156 feet), the speed and volume of water, the huge amount of spray generated that can be felt 100s of yards away, and the noise.... A road and pathway runs right alongside the river here for several miles so that you can get fantastic views of the falls and river as it goes down the gorge.

There are actually two falls - the Horseshoe falls on the Canadian side and some slightly smaller falls on the American side - at this point the US/Canadian border runs down the middle of the Niagara river. Once we had taken in the spectacular sight of the falls from the top we did the walk behind the falls. This involves going down in an elevator, obtaining a rain mac, and walking down a tunnel to come out on to a viewing platform right next to the falls. The spray was so bad it was hard to look at the falls and my camera stopped working temporarily presumably because of the water.

Niagara's fury

A separate tunnel takes you to an entrance right behind the falls - again the noise and speed of the water is incredible. Next it was into the Niagara Fury experience, which is basically a short film about the formation of the falls - 4 rivers actually feed into the Niagara further upstream. Ominously you are given a rain mac for this despite being indoors - turns out that after the film, we are ushered into another room where the lights go out and we experience what we had just seen on the film - it snows, it rains, there is wind, it rains again, and then more water is thrown over you....it was fun !

Maid of the mist

Back outside on top of the falls we noticed a fire truck with its ladder extended dangling a crew member over the side of the gorge - we thought it was some kind of demo at first but later we would find that it was something much more serious. We caught the free shuttle bus along the road to the point where you can catch the Maid of the mist - there are actually several Maids of the mist, some operating from the Canadian side, some from the US. Once issued with the obligatory rain mac, we boarded the boat on the open top deck for the 15 min trip up the Niagara River passing right up close to both falls. Once again the spray and the volume and scale is really emphasised up close in a small boat. You can also see the hundreds of little whirlpools caused by the swirling waters.

Tragedy at the falls

What we also saw from the boat was several members of the fire crew from earlier who had descended the gorge to the banks of the river and were securing a body to a harness to be winched up to the road. We found out later from the TV in our hotel room that a man had walked in to the river just above the falls and gone right over and been washed up at the bottom. Amazingly he was still alive - approximately 20 people a year go over the falls, but only 3 have ever survived without safety equipment. At the time of writing he was still in a critical condition.

Trip to the USA

Next we grabbed some food in a cafe with views over the falls, then decided we would walk over the Rainbow Bridge, which is the road bridge that joins Canada and USA at this point. It costs 50 cents to cross the bridge and there are some good views from high above the gorge. Once on the US side, we had to pass through border control, show our passports and spend 6 dollars each for a 90 day visa. Luckily there was not much of a queue and we were through quickly.

Whilst the Canadian side has a road and lots of hustle and bustle, the US side of the river is more tranquil with a large park where people were having picnics in the 30C plus heat. You can also see more of the river at the top on this side before it plunges over the two falls. There is a viewing platform that hangs over the gorge but as you have to pay as part of the US Maid of the mist trip so we did not do this.

Whitewater

We walked back over the bridge after our short trip to America, and took the shuttle further down the gorge to the Whitewater Walk. This is a short boardwalk which allows you to walk right down by the river as it tumbles and smashes it's way downstream - it has a white water rating of the maximum level 6 - basically passage by boat should not be attempted over a level 5, although naturally down the years a few brave souls have tried, most have not survived.

Provincial Canada and a visit with the rellies

It was then back to the car, and a 2 hour plus journey back towards Toronto and on East to the town of Bowmanville where we are staying the next 3 nights. This is where my aunt and uncle have lived since the 70s. Once checked into our hotel on the outskirts of town, we headed over to their house to see them, and another aunt of mine who is also over from England, and will be travelling back home with us. It was great to see my Canadian aunt and uncle - they had never met Tracey, and I have not seen them since I was a teenager, although Barry has seen them more recently.

Tomorrow we are going to have an easy day and look round the town.