Perhaps it was the last warm, sunny day for the year. Something in the air told us that we needed to make the most of this Sunday in Cambridge. Dianne and I decided to take Jana punting before she flew out to Iceland.

We arrived at the Scudamore’s ticket box. “How much does it cost to hire a punt?” we asked.

“£16 an hour,” said the lady. She looked weary. Damn these tourists, she was probably thinking. Seeing how poor we looked, she asked, “Are you students? Which college? Okay, that’s £14 an hour. You’ll need a £70 deposit or we can take your credit card.”

We looked at each other. Di shrugged and took out her credit card. While the lady was swiping it, I picked up the punting guide on the counter and flipped through it. It was full of commentary on the sights we would see as we punted down the Cam.

“Hey!” A guy leapt towards the ticket office. “I’ve only got five people on my punt and I’m about to push off.”

“Only five?” said the ticket lady. “There were 15 just now!”

“Yeah, well, I’ve only got five.”

“How much for a guided punt?” I inserted quickly.

“Are you students? £10 each.”

“Give us a discount and we’re on the boat,” I replied.

He considered it briefly. “£9, then.”

Not much of a cut, but hey, that’s AUD2.50. “Okay! Deal.”

Punts are flat-bottomed boats. Punting is a popular activity at both Oxford and Cambridge.

Jana took this photo. I put on my Asian tourist pose.

There was a lot of river traffic on Sunday.

The amateur punters kept causing traffic chaos, like this river jam. Our guide was a seasoned professional — David from Pembroke College. Mostly, we sailed blithely passed the traffic tangles. We asked David how difficult punting was. He said, “I would put it on par with ice-skating.”

This is the Bridge of Sighs (check out the weblink!). It is one of three in the world, the other two being at Oxford and the original one in Venice. David told us the the Venetian one was called the Bridge of Sighs because it linked the prison to the court house. Prisoners would sigh as they crossed the bridge towards their fate.

On the other hand, students at St John’s Cambridge would sigh as they crossed because the bridge linked their college rooms to the examination halls.

Unlike at Venice and Cambridge, the Bridge of Sighs at Oxford crosses a road rather than a river. David told us that as the students at Oxford crossed over the noisy traffice, they would sigh and wish they went to Cambridge instead.

Why study when you can fish?

Postscript
Oh, and remember the punting guide I mentioned? I tucked it into my bag. When I got home, I gave it to Jana, saying, “Here, Jana, you can have this as a souvenir of your Cambridge punting experience.”

“Thanks, Joan,” she said. “Hey, did you pay for this? I didn’t see you do it.”

“Pay? No. Was I meant to?”

“I think so.” Jana flipped the booklet over and there, at the back, it said ‘£2.50’.

Whoops!