I am one of the unfortunate souls who cannot stay in bed for long be it a working day or a holiday. I got up around half past five and managed to finish my morning ablutions as silently as possible without disturbing the fortunate lot. I parted the window curtains hoping for the ‘falls view’ which Bhanu had managed to get by arm twisting the reception clerk. The weather was cloudy and most of the falls hid behind a curtain of morning mist. If there was somebody who was in charge of the weather, she would have managed to arm twist them and get the mist cleared instantly but nobody seemed to be in control and we had to take it as it was. The mist cleared now and then to provide a glimpse of the falls and whatever was visible was enough to make me rush out for a closer view.

The Niagara village was sleeping after the hectic activities of the night. There was no traffic on the streets but I was pleased to find that I was not the only unfortunate soul who was awake. I could spot about half a dozen figures moving around aimlessly in the vicinity of the hotel. It was not too early to get out and go for a walk. It had taken less than ten minutes for us to reach the hotel from the falls by car the previous night and I estimated that I should be able to walk the distance in about half an hour’s time. I intended taking a walk along the river valley while the walkway allowed free movement.

I looked from the window trying to find the direction in which I will have to go. I could very well make out the road that we had come through the previous night and the place from which we had seen the illuminated Niagara. If I walked straight from the hotel for about half a kilometre, turned right and went down, I would end up on the road running along the river valley, which you can see in this picture.



At the end of the road to the left you see the upper part of the falls. You see the walk way by the side of the road where most of the activity is, the narrow stretch of lawn, side walk and the wooded area to the right and the hotels on the ridge. I had to walk along the parallel road on the ridge passing in front of the hotels, turn right and come down to the river. From the hotel, to the spot seen here, it should be about two kilometres.

Then I noticed that there was a terrace covered with some green tiles down below almost next to the window I was looking out from. A foot bridge connected the teraace to a small building from which there appeared to be some stairs going down and ending in another small towered structure very close to the falls. Can you see that small tower at the end to the right of the road? That is what I mean. It was much easier to reach the falls if I could just walk across the terrace and foot bridge and climb down the stairs.

I took the elevator down, came out of the hotel and looked around for the terraced structure. There was no sign of the terrace, or the foot bridge which were so clearly visible from the 11th floor window. I thought that probably our room was situated on the other side of the hotel but I could very well see the Sheraton hotel and the Best western hotel which were also visible from the same window. There were about five roads going in different directions from the hotel and I walked a few hundred meters in all directions. One ended up in the parking lot behind the hotel, one was the road we had taken the previous night to reach the hotel, one went up to what looked like a residential area, one ended up in the garden of the Sheraton hotel and the last went winding down somewhere.

I was puzzled but I had to solve it if I intended taking a short cut to the falls. I enquired with one or two people who were around but they were also visitors like me and had no idea where they were or what they intended doing. I went up to the room again to confirm my whereabouts, looked out of the window and saw the terrace and the foot bridge very much being there. I noted down all the land marks around them, the parking lot, the motel, the breakfast joint (all you can eat for $6)and the traffic signal posts. I came down looked around and found all the land marks except the terrace and the foot bridge. I walked up to the motel which was at a slightly elevated position and looked around. I saw the traffic signal post and the terraced structure right next to it! It was the roof of the large portico of ‘Embassy suites’ and I was standing under it all the time searching for it! Felt like one of the twelve stupid ‘Gaampa’ disciples who forgot to count themselves when taking a head count and always ended up with eleven and wondering where the missing one was!

Matters were very easy afterwards. I found the foot bridge, crossed it to find that the small building was actually the landing point of the cable car running up and down between the hotels and the falls on rails and what looked like railings of the stairs from our 11th floor were actually the rails for the car. The operations were to start at ten in the morning and there was no way to walk or climb down to the valley. The only option to reach the falls was to walk along the road which we had used the previous night. I had spent more than an hour and a half by then and since I was already famous for getting lost and did not intend keeping others on tenterhooks, I returned to the room and joined Vishwa and Dhruva who were heading to the ‘By the Falls’ dining hall for breakfast.