7.7.2012 – 7.7.2012  33 °C

After a nice sleep in this morning we headed out to see Niagara and really soak up some water! All of the activities I spoke about yesterday on the US side can also be completed on the Canadian side, so the first thing we did was walk downtown and get ourselves an adventure pass. When you buy your pass you are booked in to the different activities at different times so our day was straight away planned out with no work on our part! First activity for the day was Maid of the Mist (MM).

MM was probably the highlight of the day and an awesome way to start our Niagara experience. We boarded this boat (about five hundred people fitted on board) decked out in a blue poncho and got ready to get really WET. Once you get up close to the waterfall the noise and the spray are just amazing! The falls are huge they are at least 3 (if not 4) times higher than the boat, the roar is deafening (I couldn’t hear the commentary… I’m not sure why they even have it, no one cares!!), the spray is right in your eyes, the wind whips up your poncho, your face is wet, water is dripping off your arms! IT IS EXHILIRATING and the best 15 dollars I’ve spent in a long time! The thing I can’t get over is the fact that people went over these falls in barrels back in the early 20^th C.. CRAZY!

From this experience we headed back to our digs for a bite to eat for lunch before we took the courtesy bus up the road to the next activity a walk next to the rapids. Not far up the river from the falls themselves is the Niagara rapids. They are class six rapids (the highest rating there is) and are off limits to everyone, including professional white water athletes!! I can’t believe they don’t even let the professionals tackle these rapids. Looking from the bank you can understand why they don’t let anyone in the water. The waves are normal height waves, but the current moves SO fast down this small stretch of water. Add to this wicked looking rocks bulging up from the bottom and you can understand why they’ve closed this stretch of water!

From the white water area we headed back down to the Horseshoe falls to watch an Imax  style movie and to go for a walk behind the waterfall itself! The Imax movie was different. It started by showing us a cartoon about the ice age in Canada and the creation of Niagara. The cartoon sort of ended with us being told it was time to experience our own end to the ice age. The cartoon sort of came to an abrupt end and then we went into another auditorium that is set up in the round. We all stood in the middle watching 360 deg screens holding onto handles. As soon as this part started we were all covered in white bubble/ frothy stuff (similar to soap bubbles in your bubble bath). We were all wearing ponchos again so we knew that we wouldn’t get too wet! The bubbles were to represent the snow (and ice age I guess). We worked our way thru the different events that lead to the warming of the earth and the creation of today’s waterfall. To make us feel that we were ‘part of it’ we got water streaming down from the roof, huge fans blowing us with wind, ground shook, lightening forked across the screens, thunder sounded. I’m sure you can imagine. It was a pretty cool setup but the finale could have been a really cool Imax style falling over Niagara… Instead the end was quite lame with some more water and video of the falls from the front?… I’m glad I didn’t pay separate money to do the movie experience but it was still pretty fun!

Our last activity for the day was in behind the waterfall. Somehow I had in my head that we would walk down the side of the Horseshoe waterfall and then climb in behind the falls.. Not so. Tunnels have been dug in behind the fall and so what happens is that you walk thru these tunnels and then see the fall from a safe distance… No getting satched under the fall itself!! Damn! The last part of the tunnels is fun though, you walk out on this platform that sits right next to the falls so you do get a sense of the power of the falls. In hindsight we should have gone back over to the US side and done the Cave of the Winds walk. This walk takes you down next to the falls and lets you actually stand under a part of the fall and feel the power!

By the time we had finished this activity we were stuffed, so we headed back to a pub that has a great view of the falls for a drink and a rest. Once we had our breath back we headed back to the digs for a shower before we headed back out for some dinner. We headed into the Side show alley looking for something tasty for dinner. We eventually found a little Italian restaurant where we had some pasta and a really yummy pizza for dinner. Our evening finished with us checking out the falls for one last time before we all fell into bed! Phew, it was a long day today!

Song of the Day- Rihanna, Umbrella