Cambridge

Back during a bank holiday weekend in May, I made the exquisite plan to do no planning for a random weekend away. This is how we stumbled upon Cambridge. For the extortionate price of £37.50 return, you can head one hour out of London and be transported into the quaint, collegiate, weird (people in cloaks and hats riding bicyles whilst simultaneously carrying large stacks of books and smoking their rolled up cigarettes) world of England's second oldest university.

Besides lots of pretty buildings, high street shops and oldy worldy type cobbles, Cambridge is also home to the River Cam and the great 'sporting' tradition that is punting.

I may have this wrong, but punting is something of a time honoured tradition of the well-heeled students and tourist types in the greater Oxford and Cambridge Universities. It involves a flat bottom boat that can seat up to 8 (?) and has a platform on the back for the punter, as such, to stand on and use a gigantic stick (probably a technical word for this) to steer/move/not move the boat foward depending on the level of skill. Think of a really fat gondola and you've got the general gist.




This seems simple enough. But on this river you're vying with drunk students tippling Pimm's on a rare blue sky day, tour guides who know what they're doing and the general public who think it doesn't look that difficult. Every now and then, you hear a splash followed by a cheer followed by intense laughter and wild gesticulations. No one said punting was easy.

Now I won't claim to have been the best punter, but I definitely wasn't the worst. The accolades for worst punter go to Paul who, within the five minutes he was standing on the back of the boat, managed to catch the pole on the bottom of the river, slip and do a spectacular jump/fall/nose plug leap into the five-foot depths of the river.


Derryn took over and Paul bought a new pair of jean shorts. Job done.

We didn't get much of the university history, folklore, etc, but if I pull my strings right, I might be able to give the insider's tour in the near future. I've just been awarded a TDA scholarship for a two-year MSt in Education at Cambridge. Next step--the application and thesis proposal. Move over Ivy League!