Niagara Falls, Canada

Stopping at a very well respected Canadian coffee chain.

Originally I was going to stay the night in Buffalo, head up to the Canadian side of the falls for a day, then continue my journey through the US. However I thought that while I was so close to the Canadian border, it was probably worthwhile doing a quick trip through East Canada. So I booked a hotel for Niagara Falls and Toronto then put in couch surfing requests for Ottawa and Montreal.

Crossing the Canadian border was relatively straight-forward. I remembered to take my passport out of my pannier and put it in my glove box so I could pass easily through. The Canadian border patrol were pretty chill, asked me a few questions about my trip and I didn't even have to take my helmet off! Passed through the inspection, paid 3 American dollars at the toll both and then I was through.

Riding through Niagara Falls (the city).

It was a little weird to get used to being back on the metric system again, obviously all the speed limits were now in KM/H. Thankfully my speedometer showed both metric and imperial units.

By the time I arrived in Niagara Falls it was getting dark, so I headed down to a local brewery for dinner. Since they brewed in-house I got to try real Canadian beer. According to the bartender, many Canadian breweries have now been bought out by American ones, so getting a real "Canadian" beer could be a little difficult at the regular drinking holes.

I noticed that not much had changed from the time I left the US, the culture seemed to be about the same. Replace Starbucks with Tim Horton's and that's about it. Mind you I was very close the the US border, so the American influence may have been creeping in a bit.

The falls from behind.

The next day was kind of miserable, cold, wet and rainy. A perfect day to go see a giant waterfall. I packed all my stuff up and headed down towards the falls. 

From just the ride down from the hotel to the falls I got fairly wet - at the time I left the hotel it was clear but it started raining almost as soon as I set off. The weather trickery meant I did not bother with the wet-weather gear (I didn't have wet weather pants by this stage in the journey anyway). 

What I found a little puzzling is that it's not that clear how to get to the falls, or good places to park. There were these massive empty car parks (presumably due to it being off-season), but the were quite a distance away from the waterfall. And I thought there'd be signs everywhere saying "Falls this Way", surely this would be the only reason people are in this town. 

However at some point I was able to see a massive spray of water rising off in the distance, which put me in the right direction. I found a car park for $8 an hour, got my SLR out and walked down to the falls. 

Looking a little uncomfortable. But proof that I was there!

I got pretty fucking soaked. I don't think it was even raining then, but the spray coming off the falls was very heavy. Many tourists were wearing ponchos, but I just had my light weatherproof jacket on, which was really good at deflecting the water off my torso and onto my jeans. These were the Kevlar jeans too, so they get really heavy when they're wet.

Needless to say I was pretty uncomfortable, but I managed to get a few shots of the falls. Honestly I was a little worried about my SLR getting damaged by the water, so I didn't take that many photos. The water spray would almost instantly put drops all over the lens, meaning I had to keep wiping it with a damp cloth - not very effective. 

The falls without a cold wet man in front.

One thing that was pretty amazing is how close you could get to the falls. The edge of it only seemed to be a couple of feet away. I wonder how they deal with the erosion? The falls are constantly eroding back the edge causing the horseshoe shape to be noticeably different every decade or so.

Despite all my problems, it was fantastic to see the falls. They are immense - the volume of water that comes off them is staggering. It might be nice to see them in the summer though, I may have done the boat tour if it was a little warmer.

I eventually took refuge in the close-by tourist centre  where I dripped and pondered how my 5 hour ride to Toronto later on was going to go in cold, wet jeans.

The tour ship approaching the falls.

The "American" falls on the other side.

In the end I decided to ride to a local Tim Horton's and dry off for a bit. After a few hours I set off on the freeway to Toronto.