Let's take a punt.

After alighting from the number eight bus, it was a shortish walk to the River Avon. We walked along the river bank till we reached the Antigua Boat Sheds.

We were booked in for 1.30pm so, to kill half an hour, we had a cool drink.

We were given a pre-punt briefing about the dos and do nots of our 'cruise' :-
# do keep hands inboard
# don't dangle fingers in the water - the eels will bite them off
# don't stand up
# don't rock the boat - the punter might fall in
# don't fall in
# if you do fall in, the water is only waist deep

The punt lasted about half an hour. We went upstream through the Botanic Gardens admiring the very large, old, mainly English trees, and waving to all the people ashore who wished they were us.

The return trip was a bit easier on the punter as we were now going downstream.

Both ways we had to dodge some rather incompetent canoeists.

The hardest part was trying to get out and at the same time retain some dignity.

A very enjoyable experience.Read more