We started the day with breakfast provided by the hostel, I had porridge, a muffin, a banana and a cup of coffee, a nice change from a bagel and an apple washed down with Mt. Dew. After breakfast we went into town to go on the Maid of the Mist. We timed it just right as we got in just before two coachloads of children showed up, a couple of minutes later and we would have been queuing for ages. The boat trip was really good fun, you get right up close to the falls, sitting in the spray in the fetching blue plastic coat/bag thing. Being so close, you get a good sense of just how much water is flowing over those falls. The funny thing is that half of the water that flows down the river is diverted into a hydroelectric powerplant, so the falls have only half the power that they could have and once did. There was one thing that really rubbed me up the wrong way though. When we had docked and we were all filing off the boat, a couple of people behind me were physically pushing me forward from behind. I don’t know where they come from, but in England, and Canada by the looks of everyone else on the boat we do not push in crowds, we calmly file out. These women eventually pushed and shoved past me and barged their way through the crowd in front of me. I just don’t get it, they got off the boat about 20 seconds quicker than everyone else, but succeeded in making everyone hate them.
Right, rant over. Once we had got back onto dry land we headed back up to the hostel to have a shower before hitting the road. The hostel owner, Patrick, who was a very outspoken kind of guy drew us a map of the interesting stuff along the river from the falls. He was saying that a lot of people get the wrong idea of the Niagra Falls area because they see the falls and the town then leave before seeing anything else. I recon he is right, the falls are obviously cool, the town obviously crap and if that is all you see then you may leave with the opinion that it is just a tourist trap, but there is actually quite a lot of interesting stuff if you get away from the town.
From the falls we went north along the Niagra River, past the Rainbow bridge and stopped at a Buddhist temple. It had a room with 10,000 model Buddhas all around the walls, pretty interesting. We had a wander around the place, but a school trip turned up shortly after we did, so we made a move so we didn’t get in the way. Further North the river turns sharply creating a huge whirlpool, apparently the largest in the world, but that depends on your definition of whirlpool, I’m sure there are sometimes epically large whirlpools out at sea that are bigger. Anyway, we parked up and walked down this slippery track through the woods down to the river banks. From the banks you don’t really get a good idea of the movement of the water, you can see that there are incredibly strong currents and eddies, but it is hard to see the whole picture. It was a nice place to go though, the gorge is actually very attractive with green walls contrasting the blue of the water and the sky. Every so often there was a splash as a fish jumped from the water. The view of the pool from the top of the cliffs gives a better idea of the actual movement of the water. On the way into the pool there are some brutal looking rapids, apparently class 6 if that means anything to you. The whirlpool itself is not really the vortex that you may think of as a whirlpool, but a mass of complicated currents. Just by the viewpoint an old boy spotted what he claimed to be an otter, a good thing to take a photo of, but I am not convinced of its otterness.
Beyond the whirlpool there is an area called Niagra Glen, which seems to be some sort of nature area with walking trails. We went down towards the river and wandered along the rocks by the rapids. The rapids are pretty fierce down there, apparently class 5, and you get to sit right next to them. G0N actually went in the river, I assume at a calm spot as I couldn't actually see from where I was standing, he obviously was fine, but in the process of getting all of his stuff down from the rock that he was on to where I was, his camera got a touch damp. It will probably still work once it has dried, but it won't be taking any photos for the next few days.
Down towards Niagra on the Lake you go down the plateau that the falls is cut from into an area that has a warm microclimate so is Canada's prime wine region. It is also the location of a battle between Canada and America, which Canada won. Apparently it was America winning favour with the French and indirectly attacking the British when France and Britain were at war. The area has a monument similar to Nelson's Column dedicated to a British general who was killed in the battle. We then left the Niagra and went towards the freeway but first stopped off at Welland Canal Lock 3. The Welland Canal is a huge canal that runs between the Great Lakes and had epic locks, just like our canal locks but enormous. Unfortunately there were no boats were around as it would have been great to see a huge cargo ship pass through the lock.
Once we hit the freeway we were just hitting the road going up towards Sudbury. We made it as far as Barrie before stopping for the night, but a night without internet as McDonalds' here do not have free wifi!
Cube out
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