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In 1860 thousands watched as Charles Blondin walked a tightrope across NIAGARA FALLS for the third time; at the midway point he cooked an omelette on a portable grill and then had a marksman shoot a hole through his hat from the Maid of the Mist tug boat, 50m below. As attested by Blondin and the antics of innumerable lunatics and publicity seekers - not to mention several million waterlogged tourist photos - the Falls simply can't be beat as a theatrical setting. Yet the stupendous first impression of the Niagara doesn't last long, especially on jaded modern palates. Consequently, to prevent each year's twelve million visitors becoming bored by the sight of a load of water crashing over a 52-metre cliff, the Niagarans have ensured that the Falls can be seen from every angle imaginable - from boats, viewing towers, helicopters, cable cars and even tunnels in the rock face behind the cascade. The tunnels and the boats are the most exciting, with the entrance to the former right next to the Falls and the latter leaving from the bottom of the cliff at the end of Clifton Hill, 1100m downriver. Both give a real sense of the extraordinary force of the waterfall, a perpetual white-crested thundering pile-up that had Mahler bawling "At last, fortissimo" over the din. Trains and buses from Toronto and many of southern Ontario's larger towns serve the town of Niagara Falls , 3km to the north of the action; the availability of discount excursion fares makes a day-trip to see the Falls a straightforward proposition, although, if you do decide to spend the night, quaint Niagara-on-the-Lake , 26km downstream beside Lake Ontario, is a much better option than the crassly commercialized town of Niagara Falls itself. Niagara-on-the-Lake can be reached from the Falls by shuttle bus , but note that accommodation there is extremely tight in high season, when you'd be well advised to book up a couple of days in advance. Both the Niagara Parkway road and the Niagara River Recreation Trail , a jogging and cycle path, stretch the length of the Niagara River from Fort Erie, 32km upstream from the Falls, to Niagara-on-the-Lake.
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