Jolly Boating Weather!

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I shamelessly borrow my title from the Eton Boating Song, though it doesn't refer to the kind of boats I'm talking about here! Sunday was Mother's Day in the UK (the fourth Sunday in Lent) and my youngest daughter had hired a punt on the river in Cambridge to take a party of us (including her mother, of course) along the Backs in Cambridge. It was a perfect spring day and ideal for viewing the backs of the colleges where their buildings and gardens border the river. Punting is a very popular pastime here, especially in the Spring and Summer. People hire punts from various places along the river and can either propel themselves or be punted in style (as we were) by a chauffer. A punt is, as you see from the picture, a flat bottomed boat which is propelled by a long pole pushing on the bottom. They are a very stable kind of boat and very safe to travel in and almost anyone can quite easily learn to manage one. The chauffeurs who ply their trade on the Cam usually have a wealth of stories and anecdotes about the colleges and their history and manage to keep up a steady stream of them as they pass the various colleges. Could they be said to 'puntificate'? It has been several years since I last went punting. A long time ago, when I worked in Cambridge and had Saturday afternoons off, I often used to hire a punt for a few hours and practice my punting skills - there is quite an art in pushing the pole in the right direction so that the boat goes where you want it to. There is also quite an art in learning not to hang on to the pole if it happens to get stuck in a muddy patch, while the boat continues placidly on its way. I believe that I only ever found myself in that position once, though the surprised faces of tourists as they slide gently down the pole into the water is a common source of merriment!