Halling Holidays: The Hoard to Niagra

After storing the ‘van we decided on a quick trip to Stoke on Trent as Sue and Martin had made their way South. The focus of the day was the Hoard. In 2009 an amateur metal detectorist discovered some objects near Lichfield. In total some 3,500 items were found and he and the farmer received £1.8M each. 3 years later (after ploughing) they discovered a further 81 objects. These dated back to around 1066 and were a range of objects largely used to decorate the hilt rings and pommel caps of swords.

The pieces are mainly silver, gold and garnets. In order to see the detail magnifying glasses were supplied. There was intricate filigree and inlay work – clearly 9^thC eyes were in better shape than mine.

After that it was off to Canada. The trip went really well up to Newark, however that airport is a shambles. Treating transit passengers the same as those entering the USA is plain daft. The debacle included opening a sealed bag containing Drambuie purchased at Heathrow, checking it for explosives and then resealing it. As we had already missed out connection this last aspect at least had little impact other than to underscore avoiding USA as a transit stop.

Cousin Pam and Robin did hang around in Ottawa to pick us up and we eventually passed out after a 24 hour day. The next day history was made as we got aboard Pam & Robin’s boat Bora Bora and it actually moved. We tripped around the lower Ottawa river at one stage skippering through unchartered waters (much to the excitement - or was that stress - of the owners). Although the day was occasionally wet it was great fun. Pam’s son Neil, new fiancé Aspen and her Dad John joined us for the trip.

After a rest day we set off on our road trip to Florida with the first stop being Niagra by the Lake (Ontario). A very colourful town (quite upmarket) where we had dinner followed by a show ‘Juno and the Paycock’. Extraordinary acting albeit of a not too cheerful play.

However, this segment was all about the Falls. There are two discrete sections – the Horshoe Falls

And the American Falls.

There are some staggering statistics. The volume of water in the Great Lakes represents 20% of the amount of fresh water in the World and of course this eventually all goes over the falls (from Lake Eyrie to Ontario) at the rate of 154 million litres every minute. The volume of water has resulted in erosion and the falls have moved some 11 kilometres upstream from where they first formed after receding Glaciation. They flowed at some 65 km/h which resulted in erosion of 3 metres pa. Engineers have now reduced the flow (through bypasses) and erosion is now down to 300 mm per 10 years so at least they will be around for a few more generations.

There are three ways to see the falls – from above, by boat and then from behind. (The latter is more noise that picturesque!)

At the start of the boat trip we were all supplied with ponchos to help keep dry – quite a fashion statement.

However, the attire rather lead us into a false feeling of safety. The anticipated mist occurred for much of the journey up to the falls and the new perspective was breath taking.

But when close to the falls we were treated to a deluge. Very exhilarating!

Fortunately the day was warm and once back on dry land we quickly dried out – all except my camera which unfortunately suffered death by drowning.

A quick trip back to the hotel for a shower and change of clothes and then it was off to a wonderful meal at the rotating restaurant in the Skylon Tower shown here towering over the spotlights.