One minute its November and you’re in Niagara Falls, the next its March and you’re in Heathrow airport on your way back to Texas from the UK. Time definitely flies, as Porcupine Tree (amongst others such as Yes) remind us:

“But after a while

You realize time flies

And the best thing that you can do

Is take whatever comes to you

'Cause time flies”

So back to November 2009. Thanksgiving is a major holiday event in the US so what better way to celebrate it than a trip to Toronto, Canada, eh? (have to practice saying “eh” at the end of every sentence if you go to Canada).

Another visit to Toronto means an opportunity to see Niagara Falls at last.

Its an understatement to say Niagara Falls is big. At its peak flow it can fill three olympic swimming pools PER SECOND! But Niagara Falls is not the biggest waterfall in the world by any measure. Its not the tallest (Angel Falls in Venezuela is almost 20 times taller), the widest (Victoria Falls on the Zambia/Zimbabwe border is about 30% wider) and its flow is not the greatest (Boyoma Falls in the Republic of Congo has a peak flow three times greater!).

But still, you can’t fail to be impressed by it when you see if for real:

Niagara Falls actually consists of three separate falls: Horseshoe falls (above), American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls. The latter two are on the US side of the Canadian/American border but are a lot smaller than their Canadian sibling.

All that water is quite harmful though. This picture shows the change in the position of Horseshoe Falls from 1678 to 2005:

The good news for the US is that at the current rate of erosion it will be on the their side of the border in 15,000 years. Probably worth planning the tourist facilities now. As we all know, time flies...