£10 per person for the guided punting tour, £14 for all of us if we do it ourselves.
“I’ll row the damn boat,” blurted Sara with her usual determined confidence.
Personally, I was glad she decided to step up to the plate because I did not feel like punting for the next hour. The two-hour train ride to Cambridge required me to wake up early that morning and we had walked a considerable amount that day. I wanted to sit back and enjoy the view of the river.
I figured Sara would be a good punter. Her cool demeanor and headstrong attitude led me to believe that she could do anything. I was wrong. She cannot punt.
To be fair, it looks a lot easier than it actually is. Punting requires the person moving the boat to stand in the back and push off of a large pole. We didn’t get too far before the diners at the riverside restaurant began joining us in our laughter. Here we were, a group of arrogant Americans, thinking we could punt. I waved at the diners and smiled at them. We were having fun failing, and they were having fun watching us.
Sara never really got the hang at punting, but at least there was a paddle I could use in case we needed to steer in a certain direction. We devised a system in which we would aim ourselves towards the stone walls lining the river in order to push off of them.
After fellow punters futilely tried to give Sara punting tips, we made our way back to the punting office to pay our £14.
Then, like the classy people that we are, we had tea, tried on hats, and drank gin and tonic from a can on the train ride back.
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