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Northern America -
Niagara Falls

 

Actually, you can describe the Niagara Falls with one word: water. If you think this is not precise enough, you also can use three words: water, water and water. And a description with ten words would look like this: water, water, water, water, water, water, water, water, water and water. I would like not to present here the description with 100 words and prefer to use some pictures to describe this spectacle of nature. These pictures show, as you could expect ... water.
 

     

The Niagara Falls consist of two parts, the Canadian Falls (also called horseshoe falls) and the American Falls, where a few decades ago a big part of the edge broke off.
 

overview (56 kB) Canadian side (69 kB) American side (83 kB)
 

     

The Canadian part of the falls should be the more famous one. What amount of water falls down there into the deep I don't know. But at night and in winter, a big part of the water is told to be deviated to power a hydroelectric power plant in the near area. And they say the edge of the falls is remade with concrete every year to keep if, despite of the erosion by the water, from moving backwards. From above (without the mighty background sound) the waterfalls doesn't seem that big, from an unlucky point of view you may even fail to notice it.
 

from above (46 kB) from above (58 kB) from above (65 kB) from above (34 kB) hardly visible (79 kB)
 

     

There are different possibilities to approach these big amounts of water. The easiest one is from above. Just walk along the street up to the edge, lean as much forward as possible over the railing, stare on the water speeding by and never inadvertently tip over. You also can approach from below, on a boat. In the beginning, this is quite funny, but as soon as you are close enough to the waterfall, you actually don't know anymore where there is more water - above or underneath the boat. A little you can tell the height of the edge on this picture. But then I stopped taking pictures, I wasn't able to see anything and it just was wet. The more engineering-like approach is to dig a tunnel and get closer to the waterfall from behind. This method is not depending on the weather, optically not as impressive as the other ones but for sure by far the loudest one.
 

from above (45 kB) from down below (40 kB) from behind (56 kB)
 

     

Best I liked the view from the side. The amount of water searching its way to all the remaining dry spots on me was limited (thanks to tunnel and shelter), and the sight was overwhelming.
 

from the side (28 kB) from the side (28 kB) from the side (25 kB)
 

     

The American part of the falls suffered, as already mentioned, from a big damage, as much of the edge broke down. This makes it seem less high but at least as interesting as the Canadian falls. From the side it is maybe even more beautiful to look at.
 

from the side (46 kB) from down below (60 kB)
 

     

The river above the American falls looks quite inviting, for swimming or boating. The water flows there leisurely, before it slowly starts to flow faster, as it flows down one or two steps in the riverbed. Latest on the third picture you should find out that something here is wrong - after another then meters, the riverbed is missing! But then it would already be too late, and even the rainbow wouldn't be able to comfort any captain.
 

slow (102 kB) fast (82 kB) faster (99 kB) very fast (79 kB) extremely fast (59 kB)
 

     

Also here you get the pretty staggering possibility to take a look at the waterfall from a boat. But due to the boulders, the boat cannot get very close to the waterfall. Luckily, there is the elevator-tunnel-woodpath-version, which leads you up to one arm length away from the white source of noise. It may not look like it, but the poor yellow figures definitely enjoy their trip.
 

from down below and wet (35 kB) close (47 kB) very close (45 kB)
 

     

After all the excitement, the rain from all directions and the thunder, and at the places where you don't have to pay for admission, the water changes its face and becomes again a river, which easily could meander through the countryside anywhere else on this planet.
 

bridge (93 kB) water (110 kB)
 

 
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