Niagara Falls

1st August 2017 – Today, we have decided, is the first day of our adventure!

We visited the falls and had a wonderful time.  Our pass took us on an adventure behind the falls – dressed in a yellow plastic cape –  which was an awesome site. After a lunch of ice-cream we visited the 4d cinema where we watched a film [dressed in a blue plastic cape to keep us dry] about the formation of the falls.  To end our experience we climbed aboard The Hornblower and together with 250 other people travelled into the heart of the falls – this time dressed in a pink plastic cape – where we got extremely wet. An awesome experience which left us with huge smiles and much excitement.

Our accommodation for the next four nights in Niagara Falls is fantastic.  We have a room in a shared house with access to the kitchen so we were able to cook our own tea. The owner met us, gave us both a gift of a papyrus picture from his home in Egypt, showed us around and left us to it.  A much better ‘airbnb’ experience than the previous one in Hamilton – lets hope it continues.

2nd August 2017

Today we visited:

White Water Walk – a self-guided walk along the edge of the Niagara river. The water was extremely deep [15 metres] with waves between 2 and 5 metres high swirling around besides us. The speed of the water ranged from 35 to 105km/ph depending where in the river it was measured.  The whole walk took around an hour.  We were mesmerised by the sheer volume of water and its ability to jump up high only to pound back down into the swirling mass.

Treated ourselves to a frozen banana covered in dark chocolate and sprinkles which was extremely delicious – a delicacy!

Whirlpool Aerocar – a basket type construction which travelled across the width of the Niagara over a basin, as the river sped around a corner.  Another way of experiencing the might of the Niagara River.

Butterfly Farm and Botanical Gardens – Not really a lot to say about this apart from we had fun trying to encourage butterflies to sit upon us, with some success! Due to the lack of information cards we can’t even identify the butterflies.

3rd August 2017

Today we decided to hire bikes and ride some of the 54km Niagara River Recreational Trail. A fairly flat route that took us through small villages, although instructions were few and far between so we made a few mistakes along the way!

We made a few stops, buying peaches from the roadside for lunch, visiting a working floral clock – created with 16,000 bedding plants which chimes every 15 minutes.

As has become the norm so far, the day was mostly sunny with rain showers and thunder coming in after 4pm.

4th August 2017

Old Fort Erie – we learned about the infamous bloody battle of 1812 between the Americans and British who occupied Fort Erie at the time. We watched a demonstration of a musket being loaded and fired and took a tour led by [children] costumed guides – in fact the whole place was run by children – or are we just getting older!!

Drove back to Niagara falls to visit ‘The Floral House’.  We were very underwhelmed.  Very few plants were labelled and there wasn’t much to see. The main attraction came in the form of a chipmunk scuttling across the floor. The evening was spent trying to find accommodation for the next night [airbnb – too far away, campgrounds – full, hotels/motels – too expensive, b&b – non existent.  Decided to head out to Long Point Provincial Park to see what we could find.