Oct 5th to 10th Niagara Falls

NOTE: The blog photos are not all currently being displayed. It is not your computer at fault but a Blogger system error to which I have not at present found a solution

Niagara is the world’s biggest waterfall by annual volume of water. It is impressive and magnificent. The falls split into two main sections, American Falls, unsurprisingly on the American side, and Horseshoe Falls in Canadian territory. Horseshoe Falls carries nearly 10 times the volume of water of American Falls. Here’s a photo of American Falls with Jane unsportingly refusing to dive into the cascade as I take the snap. Doesn’t look that small, does it?


The way to experience the falls hands-on is from the water, on the Maid-of-the-Mist boat trip. There are about eight Maid-of-the-Mists, numbered accordingly, and each voyager is kitted out with disposable blue bin-bag style weatherproofs. Here comes the boat we’re queuing for, with its cargo of distinctively dressed thrill seekers.

Now we’re on the boat in our designer weather gear. Jane’s got a Lacoste crocodile on hers, although it could be a blemish in the material, but we know it’s the real thing. Careful not to shove your fingers through the plastic when you’re tying it on.

We sail in front of American Falls to start with, and a distance shot gives an idea of the scale of the waterfall by comparison with the boat. The photo was taken later that day from the 500-foot Skylon observation tower on the Canadian side.

Now on to the bigee, the 173-foot drop Horseshoe Falls. The next photo is of the start of this half-mile expanse, after which it’s impossible to use the camera because of the deluge of spray.

Again, I’ll go back to a distance shot from the Skylon Tower to show where the boat goes into this foamy abyss. It’s the object in the lower centre of the picture. All the passengers have a wonderful time getting thoroughly soaked in spite of the excellence of the purpose-designed waterproofs. It was probably as well we didn’t need to use the lifeboats.

In 1960 a Maid-of-the-Mist boat saw a small figure in a life jacket bobbing in the water right below Horseshoe Falls. They pulled in a seven year old boy who had just gone over the falls. The family had been fishing from a boat in the river above the falls, far too close to the rapids, when the engine failed and the rapids capsized the boat. The boy’s sister was pulled from the river right at the edge of the falls, but the boy and a family friend went over. The family friend did not survive: very few people have. The boy became a minister of religion. I suppose if anyone ever had proof…