Breakfast in the hotel was an interesting affair, the DIY waffles, complete with a preheated waffle iron and automatic timer set to 2mins. We weren’t sure about having them for breakfast but I figured “When do you get to make your own waffles?”.
More or less the whole day was spent in Niagara at the falls. First to go on the zipline, then the boat tour, rounded off with a side order of behind the falls to give the full culinary experience. Around 75,000L of water hurtle over the falls each second. The remainder of the water is divided in two and used by the USA and Canada for hydroelectric generation plants. The falls are 328m wide and 56m high.
It was supposed to have been all four of us zipping down the falls but ended up being just myself and Char. Luckily the wait time was pretty short, largely due to us having arrived not long after the zipline safari opened.
To avoid confusion, let’s cover off a couple of things here. The zipline doesn’t take you over the falls for several reasons. There’s an invisible border in the way, the small matter of tour boats from both sides of the border needing to access the falls and the fact the bay is way too wide for the zipline to span. And even if they could, you need to consider how they’d get the participants back up to the start line. In peak seasons this attraction will have a long wait time and the throughput of customers will be high. All things considered, zipping over the water is a non-starter which is why it runs at the side of the falls.
Now that’s cleared up, back to my account of today’s shenanigans. Char and I enjoyed ourselves immensely. And I was super proud she didn’t scream once. Once you arrive at the bottom, they haul you off to the side to make another animated photo before exiting you through the photo viewing/sales area. After showing you your ride photos, they load you into a small Jeep for the return leg of your journey. It may sound bizarre that you can’t walk back to the top, but I figured that was due to fact they use the same road to shuttle the zipline harnesses back to the ride tower.
Next on our list was a journey into the mist. Armed with our complimentary poncho, a necessity for our voyage, we boarded the wide catamaran. When I say wet, I mean very wet. So if you’re of an awkward disposition that detests being caught in a rain shower, no matter how heavy, avoid this attraction it definitely isn’t one for you. Bottom line, just in case you were napping in class and hoped teacher* wouldn’t notice. If you ride the Niagara boat tour (aka Maid of the Mist/Hornblowerhttps://youtu.be/DTBLgCWNYNs) you will get very, very wet. For the entire duration that you’re at the foot of the horseshoe falls it feels like you’re under the world’s largest shower head on full tilt. Although my trainers got quite wet as did the arm I was using to take the photos, I dodged most of the water because I took a pack-a-mack and wore that under my free poncho. Bossed It!
[* not that anyone gets away with napping in certain classes, eh Angela?]On the way out of the boat tour, we lingered in the gift shop to examine their souvenirs and possibly buy a couple of things. That done and knowing there weren’t any other places to eat on the road immediately outside, we made an out-of-character but tactical move and decided to pause for lunch. We selected the family pizza deal which consisted of 1x pizza (which was the same as UK large size before you imagine a stonking dustbin lid size), fries and a drink per person. And for the pizza toppings, there was a choice between pepperoni and Margarita which was a little bobby-basic but beggars and choosers, eh? A pepperoni pizza wasn’t the most inspiring lunch compared to the other things we’ve been fortunate to find, but we were adamant we didn’t want to ascend the hill to “Blackpool” only to walk back down an hour later. And then up again to reclaim our bags and take a taxi across the US border.
Approaching the falls
Halfway into the falls
All the way into the falls
Journey behind the falls is a series of tunnels that take you down 30m to a position where you can see the water crashing around in front of you. Never mind the force or speed of it crashing down, it’s the sheer volume of it. And knowng that unlike a wild rapids ride in a theme park which makes a similar noise as the water crashes around, this won’t be silenced 10 minutes after the theme park close their gates and shut off the water pumps. This beauty will keep booming and crashing all day and all night, throughout the year. Harking back to the facts I presented you with at the start of this text, that’s a whole lorra lorra water!
The external viewing platform outisde the tunnels.
The mouth of the tunnel isn’t very wide, I’d estimate about 2.5m so we had to queue for our moment in the spray. But it was worth seeing the sheer volume of water and the power of it hurtling dowards in front of us. A photo really wouldn’t convey the force of nature to you, so I’ve opted for a video. And for those of you who don’t play online video often, you’ll need to click the play button to start it.
Once we’d ascended back to pavement level we had one more thing to tick off our list. Char really wanted to walk a little passed the waterfall and see the head of the river approaching the falls. It was a stunning spectacle. The speed of the current as the river rushed to the edge was immediately obvious. There was a roadbridge about 750m away. I suspect if you’d been crazy enough to join those intrepid showmen from yester-year and hurled yourself off the bridge in a barrel, you’d have only had 60 or maybe 90 seconds before you were flung over the edge into the mist and down into the rapids below. Although I wouldn’t recommend it as I have severe doubts about the water quality which looked pretty dubious to me, due to the white foam and a creamy pale harvest gold substance which lingered at the water’s edge and around any large branches that had become embedded in the weeds. Ugh!
Propelling Liz back up the hill was a tough job due to the crowds who were ambling along front of me. But once the path had widened enough, several exhaltations of “eyes up” – to the people on their phones, “mind your back” – to those who suddenly stopped for no reason, or “coming through” – for those who insisted on weaving their way up the path rather than walking in a straight line soon sorted them out. I’m pretty sure I annoyed a few of them but they’ll get over it and once I’d got going I wasn’t going to be stopping, otherwise I’d have needed to build up all my momentum again.
Back at the hotel we reclaimed our bags, and the reception desk ordered us a taxi to Downtown Buffalo. Unfortunately, Mo our taxi driver wasn’t at all impressed with our chosen destination and moaned about it continually. I regret to say I had zero sympathy for him. He knew we were travelling across the border from Canada to USA and shouldn’t have accepted the booking if he didn’t want the job. Rant over.
Our apartment in Buffalo is the entire top tier of a three floor wooden construction house. So I guess you could say we have the penthouse suite! Not having a car, and still feeling the after effects our our family lunch we opted to eat at Tim Hortons Drive Thru. I had a BLT roll and the ladies both had a ham and cheese croissant. My Strawberry and Coconut Refresher (think smoothie) was amazing and delicious.