Day 36 – Niagara Falls to Tonawanda, NY, USA

Niagara Falls is a very touristy place, but you wouldn’t want to miss it. Not if you are in the vicinity, certainly. Which I most definitely was. The falls by day were every bit as magical as the falls by night, with the sun creating rainbows in the mist. You can walk right along the northern edge of the gorge between the American Falls, next to the Rainbow Bridge international crossing point, right up as far as the magnificent Horseshoe Falls, above which you are more or less at water’s level. That means you are level with the sudden and spectacular drop when it occurs with such drama. The volume of water is almost too great to comprehend. Where does it all keep coming from? The Niagara River, just a little further upstream, is a very broad affair, so it is no wonder that it makes such a commotion as it comes crashing down through the somewhat narrower gorge. The drop of horseshoe falls is approximately 185m, and that is enough to create a huge plume of mist rising high into the air above the middle of the horseshoe.

There are various places from which to view this spectacle, including the “Maid of the Mist” boat trip in the foaming gorge below the falls, a zip wire ride high above the river, and the tunnels that were bored into the cliffs behind the falls over one hundred years ago. This last option was included in my ticket to the viewing platforms right at the bottom of the horseshoe falls; literally “beneath the falls”. It was worth the ticket price, more for the platforms than the tunnels, which are just a view down a shaft of a lot of white water and spray, with the accompanying noise you would expect. Standing outside at the foot of the falling water, though, was breath taking. How anyone ever survived going over is hard to imagine.

In the middle of the afternoon, I bumped into some friends. It was meant to happen and it worked out very well. I am riding the last eight days in to New York City in the company of my mate Simon, and he and his wife and daughter had walked across the bridge from the USA to enjoy the better views on the Canadian side. A couple of hours later, I collected my bike and cycled across the bridge to join them at their parked car. The bridge afforded another fabulous view of the whole gorge from high above; but l couldn’t stop to take pictures because I had to cross as a vehicle, away from the sides.

It was not an incident free entrance to the USA. The immigration official couldn’t find the exit stamp she wanted in my passport, which apparently I should have received in Algonac. I’m not sure I have had my passport stamped at all in recent border crossings; but she felt it necessary to send me upstairs and I was placed at the mercy of an empty waiting room with CCTV cameras and no obvious sign what would happen next. They had my passport, so I couldn’t go anywhere. After about ten minutes I was called through into another empty room, where I gave sufficiently good answers and showed a ticket out of the USA, which was enough to receive the missing stamp. I was charged six dollars for the privilege. None of this took very long, and everyone was polite enough, I suppose; but honestly, it wouldn’t hurt to be friendly, would it?

Rainbow Bridge

Simon and I cycled an enjoyable hour along the banks of the impressive Niagara River in the direction of Buffalo, stopping when we reached our motel, and then dining out in greater style than I have enjoyed this trip, in honour of Elinor’s birthday. So it has been a relaxing and enjoyable day before the hard work starts again after breakfast tomorrow. I have arrived in New York, my final US state of this ride, and it will take the next eight days to cross at an average of roughly 75 miles a day.

And so begins another new phase of the trip, during which I will experience the novelty of company! I have ridden mostly alone for more than a month and close to 3,000 miles and this is my eleventh state, plus a province. It will make a nice change!