Niagara - day 7

Today I think we walked at least 10 miles in the heat (or perhaps more).

We started out in the centre of Niagara and walked North along the river to a place called Niagara Glen. On the way we passed all the sights, the Maid in the Mist - boats that take passengers right up to the falls; the cable car across the whirlpool, the White Water Walk and the Niagara Bird and Reptile House. Of course we had to go in; Tris held a baby croc and several birds, some charming small parrots blessed me (right in my hair!), and Celso got angry that some of the labels on the cages were wrong!! The most fascinating bit was a huge indoor aviary with about 50 (maybe 100) free flying birds of all types. There were loads of trees and bushes and a small stream and they were busy making nests and displaying to each other. We just walked amongst them whilst they flew past inches from your face.

Any way, I digress, from Niagara Glen we took this horrid, see through metal grating, very high, spiral steps (for those of you who don't know I'm scared of heights; neither Tris nor Celso thought them horrid) down the side of the cliff into the valley carved out by the river Niagara (or more probably the glacier that carved it at the end of the last ice age; it is definitely U shaped rather than a V). We followed trails back Southwards along the edge of the river. Leaping from rock to rock or twisting our way through trees; Tristan described us as the mountain goat family! We took about 2 hours to get back to the whirlpool and watched jet boats run the rapids down the river. (We are going to do that tomorrow!)

It was such a fantastic walk. It was difficult to believe that we were so close to the tourist areas of Niagara; a little gem of a place that is not advertised to the tourists (but our hostel owner told us about it). There were lots of rock climbers down there practicing their moves on some huge boulders. They had carried down some sort of mattresses that they lay on the ground underneath where they were climbing to break their falls.

Blood (from Celso's knees), much sweat (from us all) but NO tears... we arrived back at our hostel exhausted but happy, showered and fell into bed.