Row Row Row Your Boat
Cambridge is famous for being the best place in England to punt.
You’re probably wondering: “what is punting?” When I first heard the word, it sounded like “grunting” so I thought it was a very intense sport like football or rugby. I was very wrong, because punting is one of the most relaxing activities ever invented.
To punt, you will need:1. A boat. Usually, people use shallow wooden boats.
- A tranquil river. There’s a river running through the heart of Cambridge, which we call The Cam.
3.A punter with a long aluminum stick, and passengers.
Instructions:Now, because the river doesn’t have much of a current, the punter must “punt” to move across the water. To punt, the punter stands at the back of the boat, and uses the aluminum stick to touch the bottom of the river and push off the ground at the bottom.
Okay, that’s probably not the most efficient way of getting around. If we wanted to move faster, we would probably use paddles or oars, but the point of punting isn’t for transportation. It’s for the most beautiful, picturesque views in Cambridge:
The nice thing about the boat tour was that the river goes through private grounds owned by the colleges in Cambridge, and not busy, public streets. This is the Bridge of Sighs in St. John’s College. It’s modeled after a bridge with the same name in Venice:
I got to try punting too! It’s harder than it looks… I had trouble keeping the boat from running into the sides or the other boats xD
