Niagara Trip

I walked from the hostel to the hotel fully kitted up with rucksack and by the time I got there was having disturbing thoughts of how I might cope with the Inca Trail which will be at altitude! I will worry about that when I get to Lima and see how I just cope with the altitude.

Having checked into my hotel – very nice – the first thing I did was put some coffee on (proper coffee machine) and got in the shower. Feeling much refreshed I then emptied out my rucksack, packed it into drawers and sorted out the items I would put in my carry-on luggage for the train.
I left Spank to look after the room while I went down to the lobby & tried, rather unsuccessfully to confirm the pickup time for tomorrows excursion to Niagara and ‘phone my brother – somehow my ‘phone card connection didn’t understand the country code for Ireland, although it had no problem with the UK. Having wasted a small stack of my precious change I gave up and returned to my room – where I am now writing this. When I got to the hotel they offered me a re-grade of room, from one with a bed to one with a sofa-bed (proper pull-out thing, not your Z-Bed exposed springs slicing ones flesh affair) for which they offered me two free buffet breakfasts in their bistro. At $30 a pop for breakfast, I took the deal. A word of warning to anyone wanting to stay at the Delta Chelsea in Toronto the room rate for a single person is $569 or $589 for two people. I suppose this isn’t bad for a hotel in a capital city but I can understand why this train trip was more expensive than my round-the-world flight tickets – also, of course, the bastards sting one with the “single supplement” robbery element as all “good” tour operators do. Nevertheless I am here to experience and enjoy – so I am. Another good thing about my room is that it has an iHome™ radio alarm clock thing. This has normal radio alarm function with the facility to attach one of those over-priced, over-rated bits of fruit, but it will also take real MP3 players – so my Creative is blasting forth some... you guessed it – Rush. [I just can’t resist torturing myself with the fact I will miss them playing in their home city – and in London! Niagara Falls had better be impressive!]

I am going to relax for a while and then get some dinner before getting an early night. Tomorrow’s trip is a full 9.5 hour tour so I want to be refreshed & active. Shame I didn’t bring any women’s clothing, I could have emulated Eddie Izzard’s action transvestite! [I will leave you to conjure your own images.]
More after the falls...

Well, surprise surprise, as I am sure all of you who have seen it before will know Niagara Falls is very impressive. Hard luck Yanks, whilst your falls are very impressive, they aren’t half as impressive as the Canadian or Horseshoe Falls.

I had been warned that Niagara is very commercialised and as the coach (bus) pulled into Niagara I was reminded of a seedy Blackpool. The whole town survives on tourism consisting of a load of hotels & motels and a couple of casinos. Once one clears the horrible part and gets nearer the falls themselves this is where it becomes quite lovely. The whole frontage of the falls & gorge is owned and run by the Niagara Parks Commission and is self-funding. All the tourist gift shops (aaah aaaah) are owned by the NPC and are uniformly priced – so you pay the same for your Made in China gift wherever you buy it. They also operate a superb park & ride scheme and a small fleet of green painted “People Movers” which run all over the park. I cannot remember how many hectares of park land there is, it is a lot, as it extends from the Horseshoe Falls down the Niagara Gorge to where the Niagara River diverts off to the USA.
If one has been on the Maid of the Mist before ignore the next three paragraphs.

The roar of the falls, of course, is constant (unless you think like the Yanks that someone turns it off at night – or when they are not there) and ever present. Yes, one does get used to it after a while probably because it is natural. Anyhow the Maid of the Mist sets off and we all view the American Falls and The Bride’s Veil - the “little trickle” on the right – and get quite impressed. After going past Goat Rock & Terrapin Point one then approaches the Horseshoe Falls. One can see the plume of spray rising up like smoke when one arrives by road (it looks like a section of the road has been freshly watered) but at water level and looking up one appreciates how high that plume is. With the simple announcement of “Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Niagara Falls” the little boat enters the spray cloud. In a word – awesome!

The thunderous roar has been steadily growing and then the spray hits. I have stood in a cloud before (on a mountain in Scotland) and that just brushes past and leaves you wet, but this is just a constant deluge. I don’t mean the windblown heavy rain anyone in the UK will have experienced, I mean a constant deluge – not wind whipped – just emanating from the impact of water on water. [Perhaps I should say the impact of an awful lot of water falling from a great height onto more water.] I took photographs as long as possible but feared for the safety of my camera (or wished I had an underwater enclosure for it) and had to hide it under my “plastic bag” (the complimentary spray shield one gets with every ride).

I am afraid I am not literate enough to convey the true splendour of this phenomenon so I will surrender gracefully. If you have been and seen it for yourself; you will know what I mean. If you haven’t; go and see it for yourself. If there is anyone who has been and wasn’t impressed – go and see if they perform soul implants on the NHS!

[Brief interlude on the stupidity of Americans: Niagara Falls is 50 metres high, has a plunge pool 55 metres deep and gushes 150 million litres of water over it every minute – the water feeding it comes from four of the Great Lakes. On this particular day the spray plume was a good 30 metres over the falls. Quote from woman: “Gee, I didn’t think you’d get that wet.” I rest my case!]

The amazing green colour of the falls comes from the limestone it is eroding away and when one looks down at the top of the falls one can see the bottom, probably because it is only a metre deep and so very clear. One thing I have learned from my diving experiences is a very deep respect of water; static and especially moving! This natural wonder (although it isn’t officially) commands respect and awe in equal measure. Go over it in a barrel - or anything like? You must be bloody mad!
Unfortunately, being part of a tour meant I didn’t have enough time to do “The Tour Behind The Falls”. This was a shame and I hope to remedy that when I get to New York and get a chance to revisit Niagara.

After embarking the bus we proceeded to follow the Niagara Gorge down to the Whirlpool Rapids. This is a class 6 rapids and one can run them in the “Whirlpool Jet” jet boat from the American side of the Niagara River. It is illegal to do so from the Canadian side as they do not class running rapids as a sport – the Yanks do. I will leave any reader to make their own judgement call on that, but I will definitely have a go. As I was still in Canada I had to make do with the gondola ride over the whirlpool. The whirlpool is created by the Niagara River making a 90 degree right turn in its course. The resultant pool to allow this has an anti-clockwise flow which looked bloody fast from where I was standing. Apparently the flow reverses at night when the hydro plants take umpti-litres of water out of the river to make electricity.

On the way out of the park we stopped at the Niagara Floral Clock. This is famous throughout the world and the design is changed every year. One can go into the clock house to see the mechanism which drives the clock – it has a sweep second hand too – and in there are all the pictures of the clock designs back to 1950. This year’s one commemorates the 10th anniversary of the Butterfly Centre in Niagara Park.

On the way back into Toronto we stopped at a winery for some sample tasting. It is apparently famous especially for its ice wine – the grapes are picked at night at a temperature of -10C whilst still frozen. All very nice but I would have preferred more time at Niagara to do the behind the falls tour. Never mind – one can’t have everything.

It was getting on for 9 o’clock when I got back to the hotel, so I just sorted out all my stuff for the train, packed my rucksack, set the alarm for 6:00am and went to bed.