Day 28 - to Dunkirk NY

We woke up in London, Canada with the intention of getting ourselves over to Niagara Falls, which is exactly what we did.  

Our Motel 6 was on Wellington Road, London.  Odd place, London.  They must have run out of Canadian place names, as almost everything is named after UK London.  This place even has a Thames River but we couldn't find a Big Ben.

Back on the road again and because we're in Canada, we can talk in kilometres for a change.  It was a big day today - we clicked through 10,000km on the odometer and we've still got a fair distance to go before we hand the keys of the mighty Chev back to our friends at Hertz.  

Talking about the road and driving generally, folks on this side of the border seem to be quite happy exceeding the speed limit by a good 20 km/hr, despite frequent warnings of what will happen to you if you're caught speeding.  Perhaps they invest heavily in in-car radar systems - or maybe they know the local constabulary personally.

On the road, heading to Niagara Falls we saw a sign off the Interstate to a place called Emerald Lake.  The lake wasn't too exciting but we did stop on the side of the road to get these shots of wild flowers and a pretty cool sky.  Actually, the threatening sky you can see in this photo below developed into a thunderstorm half an hour after I took this photo.  

Some more wild flowers.  Purdy, eh?

Here's a large farm shed just down the road...

We rolled into Niagara Falls Village on the Canadian side and I must say, we were a little taken back by the tacky factor of this place.  It was a little reminiscent of Vegas.

But the Falls well and truly made up for the plastic above.  Wow - this place is really something else.  The sheer volume of water we're dealing with here is hard to fathom and difficult to capture on 'film' but here's a shot at it.
 

In summer, 2.5 million litres of water flow over the side every second.  That's, well - quite a lot of water.

We decided to make the most of the place and get a bit closer to the action.  One option was a trip on the boat to near to the base of the waterfall.  Another option was to do this thing called 'Journey Behind the Falls'.  At first I thought this was a 4D simulation ride - but it transpired it's a walk behind the falls.  This sounded pretty excellent, so we gave it a whirl - and Mark - you're right.  This was such a good call.

Once you've paid your green-backs, you take a lift down to the base level of the falls to get a closer handle on what 2.5 million litres of water (per second) actually looks (and feels) like

You can then walk through a narrow tunnels...

...to two observation portals directly behind the falls.  This is really something else and must be what it's like being in the close proximity of a tornado.  The sound is impressive enough but then gusts of wind drag water into the portal to saturate all those within.  The volume of water crashing past is incredible and the low frequency audio is better than any woofer I've heard in a while.

Could have stayed there for ages.  And we did.

People say the Canadian side of the falls is better.  And they're right.  Canada has the impressive Horseshoe Falls.  The American's have this one, which is still impressive in its own right and knocks our own Huka Falls over with a blink of an eyelid.  

The 'reveal' of the Falls is excellent,  and you feel as if you've had a real treat if you sneak a quick view of them from an unsuspecting vantage point.  Like here.

We passed through border control to the American side to see what they had to offer.  The American's have quite a different view on proceedings.

But it's pretty good, non-the-less.

And while they don't have the "Journey to Behind the Falls' walk, they do have some soaking experiences.

NYPD Smokies were in force here.  Just keeping an eye on things...

We crossed back onto Canadian soil half an hour later to check out historic Fort Erie.  Here's the view of America from Canada.

The Fort was closed when we got there but we still managed to have a bit of a look around the show.

Back over the border into the  US - they must be getting suspicious by now, and off to our camp site at Dunkirk, New York state.

Today's final note is in the form of piggy-backing trucks.  This is a sight you see from time to time on the Interstate; a very large truck, with two or even three large Kenworth-type trucks on its back.  Each piggy-backed truck has its front wheels up on the deck of the truck in front and its rear wheels are rolling along the road.  All at 70 mph.
  

More piggy-backers in our motel car park tonight.

Short and sweet tonight.  We're off back to Detroit tomorrow - 300-odd miles down the road.

'Night.