Go upstream

尋夢？ 撐一支長篙 向青草更青處漫溯，
滿載一船星輝， 在星輝斑爛裡放歌。

The Chinese poem written one century earlier is my first impression about punting in River Cam. Although the scenario was not exactly the same as what he described gracefully in his poem, I still enjoyed the afternoon breeze and sunshine when I lazily dozed off in the boat.

We went punting a couple of times throughout the 3 weeks in Cambridge. The River Cam was always crowded with tourists, bantering and laughing. It's said that we could enjoy some peace and quiet if we go upstream. So, by the end of the summer school, we decided to escape form the crowds and organized an upstream punting excursion.

It takes a bit strenuous work if you'd like to try punting in the upstream. Yeah, you have to drag the boat offshore and upward along the slope as the picture shows.

Thanks to our inexperience, we've caused a traffic jam when the boat stuck in the middle of the road for a few minutes. Those people who were waiting to cross the road shot nasty looks at us unceremoniously. I thought we'd win some applause as we pushed the boat back to the water successfully and relieved the traffic jam, but there's none. lol

The upstream was apparently more primordial. It felt like the scenario in a B-movie where there's a python lurking around somewhere and we're the would-be victims. lol. Fortunately, nothing surrealistic happened that day.

We spent the whole afternoon there until we were almost running late for the closing dinner of the summer school.