Punt Tour on theCam

A chauffered tour in a punt on the Cam is can be a wonderful way to spend an hour when you are in Cambridge.

You can take out self-hire punts, and it may be fun, but you miss out on all the information and anecdotes that your guide entertains you with on the way. Plus it probably takes more than a couple of hours tuition to become competent.

Our guide on the Friday after Easter was a recent graduate of Sheffield University, who lives locally, and this had been his summer job since he was sixteen. He was certainly very competent at punting, making it look effortless, and he also knew a lot about Cambridge.
We started by Silver Bridge, and the route to Quayside took us past several colleges, under various bridges. There are some great sights, Kings College chapel, Trinity College Library, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, and gardens stretching down to the river.
The Cam used to be navigated with horses pulling barges from a tow-path, like a canal, which worked well until they got to Cambridge, where there was no tow-path on account of the the colleges owning the land right up to the river, and buildings on both sides near the quayside.  The solution was to lay gravel on the river bed, so that it was shallow enough for the horses to walk on the river bed pulling the barges.

That is how it is that punts are propelled by pushing the pole against the gravel on the river bed. There is always the danger that the pole gets stuck in the gravel. The secret is to let go of the pole, and stay on the boat. I am sure you feel sheepish, but at least you stay dry.  We had the good fortune to see someone do exactly that, and our guide very expertly retrieved the pole for them.

Punts are flat bottomed and very stable, they have blankets in case it gets cold, and umbrellas in case it rains. Thankfully we did not need them. The full ticket price as £16.50 each, but somebody from Scudamores gave us a voucher so it cost the two of us just £26.00.
fter the tour, we went to the nearby Fitzwilliam Museum looking at ancient Assyrian and Egyptian artefacts, and French Impressionists but missed the Chinese Jade that, quite coincidentally was stolen later that night.