Niagara Falls - the details

We booked a tour of Niagara Falls, and needed to be waiting for the pick-up outside the hotel just before 8am. It was 1.5hrs to the Falls, so we settled in to enjoy the ride. Apart from the 5 of us, there were 3 others on the bus - all Aussies! One lady from Brisbane, and a husband and wife from Perth.

When we arrived at Niagara, we stopped to have a quick look at the Falls before being dropped off for the larger tour bus to collect us. The boys were pleased that we had enough time for a quick stop in the Hershey's shop! After getting some "supplies" for the day, we went to wait for the bus.

The tour was completely booked, so it was a full bus. We stopped first at the top of the Falls, and had about 30 minutes to take photos etc. The mist coming of the Falls was quite heavy, and it was easy to end up quite damp! The noise and sheer size of the Falls was incredible. The roar of the water, and sheer volume crashing over the Falls was amazing. It was loud, majestic, spectacular!

We then boarded the bus once again to go to the pick up point for the Maid of the Mist. We were given our blue plastic Maid of the Mist ponchos to put on, and headed for the upper deck.
We headed past the American falls first, which have a large number of rocks at the bottom - the result of 2 rock falls, one in the 1930's and one in the '40s. The spray wasn't too bad at that point, but we could see that it was certainly heavier near the Canadian (Horseshoe) Falls. We headed over towards them, and the roaring got louder and the mist got heavier. We got quite close to the bottom of the Falls, stunned by the power of them. It made you feel so very, very small. They stand at 50-odd metres high, and so are equally impressive and intimidating. By this time, we were quite grateful for our ponchos, as the "mist" now felt like heavy rain!

After the Maid of the Mist, we headed (with our tour group) off to an organised lunch at the Sheraton. It was a buffet lunch, and very, very enjoyable.

We then returned to our bus and tour guide, and headed off to drive around Niagara. Heather (our guide) was full of information about the Falls and the surrounding area. Here are a few facts she shared with us -

* There are many hotels, tourist shops and an amusement park within Niagara that weren't there 20 years ago.

* Some parts of the area are left as "scrubby areas" to try to attract wildlife back into them. They get deer, and "scrub" wolves coming to visit. Heather reassured us that "scrub" wolves are different to timber wolves, in that they are not aggressive. I will take her word for it.

* The Falls have been slowly eroding over the years, and so at night, 50% of the water is diverted under the city through an elaborate system which was a joint project of Canada and America. From 1842 to 1905, the average rate of erosion of the Horseshoe Falls was 1.16 meters (3.8 feet) per year. From 1906 to 1927, this rate of erosion was reduced to .70 meters (2.3 feet) per year. The Falls are still "losing ground", but at a much slower rate of 12 inches every 10 years.

* We drove past the first Anglican church in Ontario - Christ Church. It is the church the Queen attends when she is in Niagara.

* We also drove past Canada's smallest church. It is called The Living Water Wayside Chapel. It has 2 pews, and holds 6 people, 7 if you include the minister. For those wanting a really small wedding!

* We visited a town called Niagara on the Lake. They love tourists, but not tour buses, so there is a bus parking bay just outside the town. It's a picture-postcard type town, with a small town, old world feel to it. We had a wonderful time taking photos and wandering around.

Once the tour was finished, we were taken back to the pick-up point for the smaller bus back to Toronto. That was at about 5pm. We were told that it would be there to pick us up at 6pm. By 5.50pm all 8 of us were there waiting. 6pm came, and went. 6.15pm came, and went. 6.30pm came, and went. One of the ladies went into the hotel, and the conceirge called the tour company for us. We were told that there had been a "slight hiccup" with the driver, and he should be there soon. Well, at 7pm we were picked up, only to be told some of us weren't on the list. The lady who made the phone call had, thankfully, told them there were 8 of us, and so we were all allowed to board. The driver, I must say, did not seem happy.

We left Niagara, and started for Toronto. However, we didn't seem to be going the way we had come in the morning. Before long, we were pulling into a motel on the outskirts of Toronto, with all the adults looking rather nervous. We were picking up more passengers! It was a Polish couple, who were heading for the airport! When the husband found out we were all Aussies, he headed down to sit with us, saying "You Aussies are good guys, lots of fun, I sit with you!". His wife made her way down after a few minutes, and we all compared travel plans and adventures. They were heading back to Warsaw after 9 weeks travelling.

We then pulled off twice more to pick up airport passengers, something we hadn't expected. By the time we arrived at the airport, I felt really sorry for the Polish couple - they had only 50 minutes until their flight was going to leave, and had been told that they must be there 45 minutes beforehand at the very latest! I hope and pray they made their flight!

So, to make a long story short, a trip home that should have taken 1.5 hours took just over 2.5 hours. The driver (from what we could tell) attempted to make up time towards the end, absolutely flying along, and hitting every pothole there was! However, we made it back to Toronto safely at 9:30pm, and that's the main thing!! It was a very long day - particularly for the boys.

Today's photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29194431@N02/sets/72157607477301388/