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Published: June 12th 2007
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Well, we've actually arrived back in the UK now, but rather than write about that we thought we'd tell you all about our last stop on our travels, Niagara Falls.
Actually reaching Niagara Falls was an achievement in itself, having failed to get there the last time we were in Toronto, due to James being ill for three days, so we were arriving back from Montreal and found ourselves with a single day in which to fit some more sight seeing. Luckily we managed to book onto a one-day tour, which set off from the city early morning and dropped us back late evening, curiously the tour operator was called 'Chariots of Fire' and even with the benifit of hindsight, it's hard to work out why. Yes, they did play the music from the movie on the mini-bus, but we were at a loss as to why and how it fit with Niagara Falls?!
Our guide was Melvin. Never was a tour guide more aptly named. Now, we don't want to be hard on Melvin, he was a nice guy and he knew everything about the history of the falls and of his country. But, it has to
Waterproof!
Initially, we thought giving out waterproofs was being a bit dramatic, but we soon changed our minds! be said, he had a voice which sounded incredibly similar to that of Stephen Hawkings... it seemed to lack any kind of tone. Any kind. It was more like a constant drone than a voice and had the effect of putting the whole tour group to sleep. When we awoke at Niagara Falls, Melvin produced a bag of rice crispy marshmallow squares for us and we were a bit taken back, we felt as if it was a kind of personal gift and began wondering if the whole 'Chariots of Fire' operation was just Melvin, his mini-bus and free cakes he baked. But hey, we were happy, we jumped on the Maid of the Mist boat and headed out to the falls.
On the Maid of the Mist you all get geared up with your plastic ponchos and run aboard the boat to get a good place to stand, in order to get as soaked as possible. We got a great position! There are actually two waterfalls, the American Falls and the Horseshoe Falls, the later being the more famous of the two. The boat sails right into the mist at the horseshoe and the water is thundering down
Feel the thunder
When the Maid of the Mist got this close all you could hear was the roar of the falls all around you, it's pretty impressive! We didn't really think we'd need the waterproofs, but the amount of water in the air was unbelieveable, we only managed to take a couple of photos right in the mist as the camera lens got soaked within about ten seconds of getting it out. After getting off the boat we walked to the top of the falls and got to see the raging waters before they go vertical, hard to imagine why so many people seem to have willingly thrown themselves over the edge in barrels etc.
The tour was a bit slower in the afternoon, we got taken to a huge whirlpool near the falls which was a strange sight, we'd never really seen a real whirlpool before. Melvin told us a strange story about an Englishman who had been in the army and had swam the English Channel, who apparently decided to try to swim across the whirlpool, but got into trouble and drowned calling for help. It seemed like an odd decision to us... swmming the English Channel is one thing, but deliberately swimming across a vortex of water, surely that's just stupid? Ah well, after leaving the river
The American Falls
Smaller of the two waterfalls, but the rocks at the bottom made it spectacular in a different way we stopped at a small colonial town which was destroyed by the Americans in the war of 1812, but rebuilt and now serves as a sort of tourist spot, where Americans now come to see what towns looked like in the nineteeth century... it was all a bit lost on the majority of our tour group, the majority of whom were British, it's hard to get nostalgic about a town that's not really that old by European standards.
In the evening we were dropped back outside Hard Rock Cafe and with it being our last night in North America, and of the whole trip, we decided it would be wrong not to eat some food, have a beer or two and a cocktail to celebrate. We knew the following day would be pretty horrendous, as we would have over twenty hours of travelling to do, plus the time difference to cope with, so we enjoyed ourselves. That meant James ordering the biggest burger on the menu and Joanna trying her first cocktail in months. It was quite a strange night, we couldn't really believe that our year away had come to an end and it still feels strange writing
Into the mist
It all seems a bit suicidal from this vantage point about it.
Now we are back in the UK, we may have to do one final entry to update where we are with our lives, but for now thanks for reading about all our adventures. It has been fantastic to keep in touch with everyone through this diary and to read everyone's comments. If we haven't met up with you for a drink then send us an e-mail, because we are pretty disorganised, what with all the job hunting that is taking place at the moment! So goodbye for now, but we'll see you soon!
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non-member comment
splosh!
a fiting end to the saga - I think that they smuggled all that water back with them disguised as rain!!!