To take a punt means, as the phrase suggests, to take a bet or give it a good try even if you’re unsure of the results…which is essentially what the Oxford punting experience is all about. Especially when experiencing this intriguing and delightful pastime for the first time.
If you expect your experience will be all Lord Peter Wimsey proposing to Harriet Vane while punting in Gaudy Night, or intriguing mystery like in Endeavour, or going on an adventure like in The Lord of the Rings or Narnia, you’ve got it just about right.
As long as you remember all the hardships the poor hobbits went through on their journey and not just the fun bits with elves.
Rewarding, captivating, challenging, terrifying, romantic, laborious, and pastoral all sum up this uniquely English recreational activity.
Yet if you dream of lounging in a slowly meandering punt while watching the idyllic countryside drift by, you should be forewarned that you will only have this experience in proportion to the skill of yourself and your punting partners, the number of trees on the sidelines, and how sticky the mud is at the bottom of the river.
Unless you have innate skill in maneuvering long rectangular objects down rivers with only the aid of a pole, it’s likely that the first time you go punting you will find yourself zigzagging from one bank to the other. This zigzag pattern is sometimes interrupted by the abrupt arrival of trees or another occupied punt, which may require you to duck down or hold to the side to avoid immediate collision.
There’s also nothing worse than watching the countryside drift by and suddenly finding yourself clinging to the punting pole like a cat stuck up a telephone pole. For this reason, the first rule of punting club is to always let go of the pole if you realize it’s stuck in the mud and about to pull you off the boat.
It’ll be much harder for your punting partners to rescue you and the pole than to just rescue the pole.
BUT you don’t want to lose the pole in the water or you’ll find yourself out the cost of a new pole when you struggle back to shore at the dock.
The punts themselves are flat-bottomed and square-cut and used in rivers and shallow waters for recreation and/or transportation. You push the pole against the bottom of the river bed and this propels the boat forward.
If it is your first time punting, be prepared to find the pole a lot longer and heavier than you expected. It feels unwieldy at first, but as you continue to make your way down the river you soon learn how to control it enough to avoid trees and other boaters.
If you are visiting Oxford or Cambridge, you have likely already become aware of the rivalry between these two universities and may thus be unsurprised to learn there are different punting traditions in each university town. It is important to know the difference between the traditions so you don’t accidentally put your foot in it by putting your foot in the wrong end of the punt.
“Cambridge End” punters stand on the till, while “Oxford End” punters (more sensibly, in my opinion) stand within the boat and punt with the till facing forward.
As a student of the University of Oxford, I clearly believe that our way is the correct way…if only because it seems safer and less likely that you’ll be swept off your feet and into a cold river because you’re standing in the boat rather than on a slippery platform.
Yet in all fairness, I must admit that this controversy does remind me of the Big-Endian/Little-Endian controversy in Gulliver’s Travels, where the warring factions cannot agree on whether it’s correct to break their boiled eggs on the big or little end. Either end should do just fine for breaking eggs or punting, but be prepared to find Oxford and Cambridge punters fighting to the death over the correctness of their own choice.
Despite the learning curve for punting and all the possible disasters that await on the river, the experience remains as one of the pleasantest and most quintessentially Oxford things you can do while in this long-standing university town.
During the spring, you are especially likely to see swans and geese and cygnets and goslings swimming and shaking their cute little tails as they look for handouts.
Although some of the boathouses offer bread you can buy in bags, many conservationists warn against feeding ducks bread and other low-nutrition foods.
If you wish to feed them (and come on, who wouldn’t want to feed those cute little faces?!) try bringing along a food type that is on the SFD (Safe For Ducks) list. This includes cracked corn, oats, birdseed, frozen peas, and duck pellets.
If you choose to go punting while in Oxford, there are two places I recommend renting punts from.
The closest to the city is Magdalen Bridge Boathouse, which is open daily February-November from 9:30-dusk. Magdalen allows five people in one punt at a time and costs £22.00 per hour. You can find Magdalen Bridge Boathouse at The Old Horse Ford, High Street, Oxford, OX1 4AU.
The second place I recommend renting punts from is the Cherwell Boathouse. They are open from mid-March to mid-October from 10am-dusk, and are slightly less expensive at £17 per hour on weekdays and £19 per hour on weekends. You can find them at Bardwell Road, Oxford, OX2 6ST.
Although I usually punted from Magdalen Bridge Boathouse as a student (since my college had an agreement with the boathouse to allow us to use the punts during Trinity term), I found the Cherwell Boathouse helpful when I wanted to take my family punting as they allow six people in each punt rather than Magdalen’s limit of five.
Whether you take a leisurely and perfect drift down the river complete with picnics and feeding ducks, or whether your punting experience contains some more excitement and running into banks or trees, it is certain that this Oxford punting experience will be filled with laughter and fun and will be well worth taking your chances on whatever may befall you.
So why don’t you take a punt—and see what happens!
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