The Botanic Gardens backed on to a waterway and at various spots we could see people out punting. This is another thing that we had been told we had to do so after finishing our viewing of the gardens, we made our way across the Magdalen Bridge and down to the riverside where there were punts to be rented. <A punt is a flat-bottomed boat that requires a person standing in the back using a long pole to provide steering and propulsion. editor>We weren’t entirely confident about our punting or navigational skills (mine in particular) so decided to pay a little extra and get a punt complete with a punter (not sure if that’s the correct title or not). These punts are all navigated by students so we thought it was worthwhile to help subside tuition. Our punter, Faith, was very capable and gave us a smooth ride past the Botanic Gardens and St. Hilda’s College, under a picturesque foot-bridge and ended by backing into the original spot (I have to back my van into my parking space at work and know how challenging that can be - I was most impressed by her skill in this regard). Faith wasn’t really chatty so we didn’t get a lot of extra information with our trip but I appreciated her other abilities especially as we saw several other students really struggling with their punts. Later on I saw an advertisement for opera punting - you could go in a punt and have people sing different arias while you travelled. That would have been interesting but sort of a repeat of the gondola ride we had in Venice with the tenor singing different works. I think in this case we were better off with Faith.
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