Taking a punt

Sorry about the lack of posting lately. Family wedding, visitors from the UK, that sort of thing.  Anyway to ease myself back in gently, here's a little story about lawyers and flat-bottomed boats.

Ever visited Cambridge, my alma mater?  Decades ago, when I was studying there, it was a sleepy backwater, far less popular with tourists than Oxford, even though both cities are about the same distance from London.  No more.  It's now arguably the high-tech capital of the UK, the major retail centre of its region, and --as tourists have come to recognize -- at least as interesting a day-trip destination as its rival to the west.

One of the fun things to do in Cambridge was always the punt ride on the River Cam. (Same at Oxford on the River Cherwell, but for some unaccountable reason Oxonians punt from the wrong end of the boat, ignoring the flat platform at one end that's clearly there for the pole-wielder to stand on.  But that's another story).  It used to be that you could do your own punting, or hire someone from the rental company to do the hard work for you (you wimp), but in either case you would be in the same, narrow boat, seating about eight.

I'm not sure when this happened, but at some point the rental companies realised they could make more money with bigger boats. Now, people trying to make their own way along the Cam in the traditional punts have to run the gauntlet of landing-craft-sized punts used by the rental companies to squeeze in as many visitors as possible -- see the picture above.   As the linked story relates, one of these companies has been mooring its craft and soliciting patrons from a spot on Garret Hostel Lane, a medieval street near Trinity College.  After protests from the college, which claimed its property rights were being infringed, the company has been forced out of business.

That's tough on the sixty or so people who may be losing their jobs, though it may at least give them an opportunity to learn some of the actual history of the city and university before their next gig: some of the entirely fictitious nonsense I've overheard these people telling innocent visitors over the years has been quite amazing. Anyway, if you're heading to Cambridge or Oxford any time soon and fancy a punt ride, think about doing the punting yourself.  It's not difficult, as long as you keep in mind a sign that I saw a year or two ago, on Garret Hostel Lane as it happens: "Punting and selfies don't mix"!