We didn't:
- Fall overboard (yay! Although it was a close thing on a few occasions, especially when swapping punting shifts)
- Overturn the punt (see above)
- Catch Weils Disease (hopefully)
- Get beaten up by a swan (despite its terrible death hiss, and the evil look in its eye that said "I'm a beyootiful bloody swan, me, so gimme some fuckin' bread or I'll peck yer eyes inta the backuv yer skull.")
- Get tangled in angling lines (but only because they saw us coming for about twenty minutes, in a delightfully meandering route, and sensibly removed their lines from the water before we got there)
- Lose the pole and have to paddle our way home (but there was a couple of hairy moments when it nearly came down to a decision whether to hang on to pole or boat)
- Go very far
We did:
- Buy a tacky straw boater (to protect me from the sun!)
- Get up close and personal with every patch of nettles within a quarter of a mile of the boathouse
- Zig-zag wildly from bank to bank (punts crash with quite a thump, it turns out)
- Turn sideways and block the entire river
- Crash into other punts
- Have other punts crash into us (we weren't the only rookies out there)
- Go backwards, sideways, round in circles, and every other damn way except straight forwards
- Almost get the hang of punting (about an hour and 45 minutes into the 2-hour trip)
- Take lots of photos (still haven't found my camera lead, but that's probably because I've not really searched for it)
- Have a fantastic time
We scrabbled our way back to the boathouse, under the cynical eyes of a lot of very tall young men who were clearly all experts, and staggered to shore and safety. To his eternal credit, when one of them asked him how we'd done, A said, "You know, the moment we got out of your eyesight, we did brilliantly!", and got a laugh. Thus we arrived back with style, if not dignity.
And then we went home and I fell asleep for three hours because I was exhausted, and then I woke up and we had taco punts (little taco things shaped like trays - I just found them the day before!), and I made a rose-flavoured cake which involved ludicrous amounts of icing, and we had Champagne, and I think A had a lovely birthday.
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chasethestars
Comments
I wonder if there's kayaking around here...
Also, it sounds a bit like canoing or at least my first attempts at it with Ex. There were times I wished we'd had a pole.
But it sounds like you both had a wonderful time.
I wanted a pair of paddles for the damn punt, personally. I'm probably a philistine. But I just wanted it to go faster! *g*
Or for drifting downstream with a parasol.
LOL! Yes, while your paramour poles you along :)
I think we have punts on Cherry Creek around downtown as a sort of novelty. Kind of like the horse-drawn coach rides. I honestly don't see how they do it, since you can *wade* in Cherry Creek (as I have done on a hot day when I was in the vicinity)
I should think punts are only used in really shallow water - they're incredibly shallow boats, and wouldn't stand up to waves. If I'd fallen in, I could probably have walked to shore, in a lot of the river.
They're a bloody lot of work, though. The poles get damn heavy after an hour or so. Not so romantic then. *g*
As much as your story makes me want to try punting just to see how terrible I'd be at it (and how much fun I'd have in the process!), I think I'll stick to kayaking. I'm fond of keeping my center of balance a little closer to the water line - helps with the not tipping over and all ;)
And, hey, I didn't fall in, and I'm not famed for my steadiness, so it can't be too bad.
I must try kayaking if I ever have the opportunity. It sounds very exciting.
Also, rose-flavored cake! That sounds very interesting.
Rose-flavoured cake was lovely. Basically a sponge, with rose water instead of vanilla, and rose water in the icing. When A lifted the cover off it this morning, there was a waft of sponge and rose scent. It looked a mess, but my cakes usually do. The important part was that it tasted nice. *g*