Sunday October 1st
Sunday was a quieter day. I had picked out Golden Harvest Baptist Church to go to, which was only about 10 minutes away from where I was staying. The service wasn’t till 11, so I got to sleep in a bit. I had a look at the beautiful river again, just across the road from the RV park, then headed off to church, which was in the country. They were a bit surprised to see me I think, since this was rather out of the way of the tourist run. It was their missionary conference week, and there were some missionary families - I think they were supporting them - who were there, and gave testimonies or addresses. It was great to hear them. There would probably have been 100 or 150 people in the congregation.
They invited me to their church lunch afterwards, and were very friendly, pairing me up with people to talk to at one of the tables. It was two older couples, and one lived in the US, Buffalo I think, and regularly drove over the border for church. There had been some kind of hurricane through, something like a year ago, and they spoke of the damage, and the repairs that had to take place.
I wasn’t keen to pay another $35 in parking, even if I had been able to get a spot, and I’d seen a lot of the falls, so after lunch I explored the area north of the falls, which was less busy that the falls, though parking was still a bit scarce. I had identified a couple of walks, the first of which was the Niagara Glen trail. I drove out of Niagara to where the parking area was, but it was full, so I had to drive on past it. A little further was the Niagara Botanic Gardens, and I found paid parking there, and then walked back, probably half a kilometre to the start of the walking track.
North of the falls the river goes through a deep, forested gorge, with quite steep sides. It’s a pretty area, and the Lord had sent yet another beautiful day. The AllTrails app had shown a track going down into the gorge, but the track didn’t seem to actually exist, so I’m not sure how the person who’d mapped it out did that bit, it looked like abseiling might have been needed! There was a flat park-like area, then cliffs, and there was an enclosure like a climb to a lookout, with stairs going around and down to the lower area.
There were quite a few tracks down below the cliffs, and I walked along one, further down to the river, where there were some places you could go out on rocks and have a closer look, being careful not to fall into the swift flow! There were one or two tourist boats went by.
The water was a lovely blue, and a few bits of autumn foliage here and there added a splash of colour. In the far distance was a huge concrete wall with the hydroelectric power plant.
Apparently there is an agreement between the US and Canada about how much water goes through the power plant and how much goes down the river, which varies depending on the time of year, with more flowing down the river during the tourist season.
I walked back up, then set off back to the Botanic Gardens where I’d parked. I still had some time left on the parking I’d paid for, so I had a look around the gardens. These were nicely laid out, with interesting use of chillis to add colour in flower plantings.
There was an old house with ivy growing on it, some nice formal gardens, and a meadow with a track through it. I timed my return to make the full use of the parking time, then went to the other walk I’d wanted to do, the Niagara Whirlpool, which was back towards the falls a bit.
This was a kind of elbow where the river does a 90 degree turn, and there is a pool off the elbow where the water swirls around. The water doesn’t look like it’s moving very fast, but with the volume of it, it’s probably pretty powerful. I found parking near the start of the walk, next to some kind of adventure park. I couldn’t get the parking meters to accept my credit card. Two or three of them were failing to read it, and I was getting frustrated. I think, almost by accident, I got one working. It seems that they were reading the magnetic stripe on the credit card, and you had to put the card in or pull it out quickly rather than slowly for it to work.
After getting that sorted out I set out to the whirlpool. At the top of the walk was a lookout over the pool, with a cable car that went across from one side to the other. I thought first it went from Canada to the US, but both sides of the whirlpool were in Canada. While I was there I saw the cable car come across then go back. It started from the other side, and just paused on the side I was on, before going back again.
The river bank was quite a way down from the road and lookout, and I found the track going down to the whirlpool a little way along from the lookout and set off down the track, starting with a set of shallow stairs. It was probably about 15 minutes walk, and at the bottom I was met with a peaceful scene, with a few people here and there on the bank, I think one or two may have been fishing.
I made my way back up to the top, then drove back towards the RV park. I wanted to get fuel somewhere and looked on the map for somewhere near where I was staying. I found a little place called Four Corners Gas and Variety near the settlement of Stevensville. It turned out to be a full-service place, something that I hadn’t seen for many years in Australia. The person inside called out for someone to attend the pump, but no one seemed to be around, so she came out and did it herself.
I parked by the river next to the RV park, and made dinner there enjoying the peace and the lovely view, as it slowly got dark, and a few lights started twinkling on the other side. I spent a good hour there, it was a lovely experience. I was now on the same time zone as Boston, so Bible study was at 8.30pm, after which I went to bed.
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