I'm so glad I'm not the only one that confused punters that way. I thought it was the same definition you did for years. I finally figured out I was wrong.
Punting is quite easy when you're sober. The bottom of the Cam used to be lined with stones that would stop the pole from sinking in. It used to be a lot of fun watching slightly inebriated punters getting out of control and taking a dip. Pretty girls in summer dresses seemed to do it quite a lot. 😀
They do say that America and the Uk are two nations divided by a common language, which can make for very interesting (and embarrassing conversations). No doubt George was chasing balls or rabbits in his dream, bless him, he's too cute to be angry with. Take care you three
Ah, punting! Did that a lot in Cambridge on my EF English language summer school in 1986! Thanks for taking me back down memory lane. It was always fun when someone created some discrepancy between the place where the pole was stuck in the mud, and the place where the punt was going. 💦🏊♀️😀
Always glad to bring back a good memory! Briefly visited again a couple days ago and watched one woman make quite the discrepancy… not quite certain how she didn’t end up in the river! M
Rowers are people with a single oar each, in 4s or 8s. 4s may or may not (but usually will) also have a cox. People with two oars, usually in singles or pairs, are skullers, not rowers. Steering is harder for skullers. Not only are they facing away from their direction of travel, but with only one hand to control each oar they have to balance their dominant and non-dominant sides -unless they're these lucky ambidextrous people. They need to know the horizon from the river and keep their stern pointing at whichever features ensure they're staying straight on course.
If it was us who were moored that would have been the Anchor Inn (nice pub) ... if it was you that was moored it could have been several we passed today! Either way, wave hello if you see us again! M
@@MinimalList hi Jo Michael and George. Yes, you were moored at the anchor ,I was the idiot waving from the opposite bank,and we went through the next two locks with you. Once again,lovey to chat with you both,you are a wonderful couple. Respect, stay safe Emma and Dave
Ahh, this is the problem with tying comments to people we meet along the way! Glad to meet you both, and thanks for letting us come through the locks with you, really sped up the day! M
Jo, Michael, you are such nice people to watch and to listen too. Loved the conversation on Punters, I was holding my breath as to what Michael would say about it, and Jo was so funny trying to explain that punters did not mean something else. Well I think that is how the conversation was going. It was brilliant to listen too. Loved the intro and debrief, even though punters took over. Lovely stretch of water and beautiful scenery. Lovely to see George. A great Vlog as always. Take care.
A virtuoso performance of ramblings by Michael particularly in the intro. Absolutey fabulous loved it yet again you make me smile. Another wonderful vlog keep up the good work.
I lived in Cambridge for the best part of a year back in the early 1960s. A lovely city, but perishingly cold in the winter when the north wind blows. I have punted, but I did the classic thing of dropping my punt pole in the river. Fortunately the punt was provided with a paddle so we could recover the pole. Jo's right: it's not as easy as it might look!
@@MinimalList it's when the pole gets unexpectedly stuck in the soft bottom of the river that you get taken by surprise an can get thrown off balance or have the pole pulled from your hands. You also have to time your removal of the pole in relation to the many low footbridges you pass under along the backs of the colleges. Seen many poles get their tops wedged against the bridge facia and the punter go for a swim.
A pleasant way for me to start the day at the bottom of the world in Tasmania. Seeing summer activities and some pleasant views. Another great video. Thanks
Woohoo, perfect timing just sat down with a nice mug of tea , for an hour of Sunday afternoon relaxation, and your notification pings! Amazing to see how many boats there are moored on the river now than there were just over 20 years ago. I rewired the beautiful little cottage at Bait's Bite on the opposite bank. Used to enjoy taking our lunch sitting by the river. So many memories for me along the river, it was my childhood escape from urban life growing up in Romsey Town in Cambridge. The A14 bridge was a favourite fishing spot. Had many a beer and meal in The Plough in days gone by, and always try to get there when visiting home. Hopefully I'll enjoy a beer there in a couple of weeks 😁 First time seeing the new pedestrian bridge! Lived along the opposite side of Stourbridge Common in the late 90's! A friend of mine lived along the Midsummer moorings in the early 90's and he was the only narrow boat on that entire stretch!! Caught my first ever fish at Jesus Green lock in 1977 and have been and obsessed with fishing ever since, my life's journey of how I ended in Florida, truly started at that moment in time. Great video. I'll have to watch this one over and over again!
@@MinimalList great memories as well as seeing the river above Baits Bite lock from the water, that was a real treat. Greatly appreciated this whole Fenland series I hope you enjoy the Fitzbillie's Chelsea Bun
Hi Jo Michael,how long has it been wear you have to book to go further up the river last time I went got all the way,got to say they have cleaned the mooring up got rid of the old boats that was held together by beer barrels good job to ,it a beautiful river lots of boat houses as you pointed out ,enjoy your stop in Cambridge till next time take care keep safe,John 🥂🇬🇧👀🌹
Really not sure how long the Backs has been under the rules that only allow restricted access, but it was mentioned in some older guide books I've seen so it must have been for at least several years. M
@@MinimalList Its actually curtesy thing! You still have a legal right to go through all year, but the summer thing was brought in the 1980's as it upset the punt owners. I think they pay big money to the C Conservancy in fees.
It interests me that no matter which waterway you're on, you always seem to pass several boats that look like they haven't been maintained in, like, decades. That just fascinates me. Cambridge is an interesting city. I was there in 1977 when I was TDY to Alconbury RAF base. Loved walking around there, though I'm sure it's much different now.
Nothing in England changes fast, but I dare say there's more big tech companies around these days! And yeah, no matter where you go there's boats that look like they've never moved! M
A punter (customer) can take a punt (a gamble or a boat) and go punting if his gamble pays off and there are punts for punters who want to go punting. Am I sounding like Michael Jo?
I was so excited for this vlog in particular because two years ago we stayed here - on the Cam, right by that green pedestrian bridge. You went right by where we sat and watched the rowers get ready for The Bumps - and you cruised right by all the places we walked on the river. It was great to "revisit" a place we loved. Thanks for taking me along.
I'm looking forward to giving you a ride up the Backs this coming winter on my boat.... It's quite a special experience. I look forward to your explanation of the difference between Oxford and Cambridge punting ...
You have inspired me to visit Cambridge next week as I have a weeks holiday and between the insane hikes they put on holidays whilst the schools are out and everyone staycationing getting away is costing a kidney but a couple of nights at the yha is definitely doable.
Hey, that is a really interesting bridge at 10:41 :) and bonus points for having a train. Okay, looking at paused video, the diamond bridge is road bridge and truss bridge is railroad bridge. I like the way it is painted. The evidence suggests road bridge is recent, even current, construction. Okay, now to un-pause and see what develops.
Not actually a road bridge, that's part of the very new (in fact as yet incomplete, they've only completed part of Phase 1) Chisholm Trail, a pedestrian and cycling path between Cambridge's main train stations! M
Been to Oxford many times but never Cambridge. I assumed it would look like the river Isis overlooked by college quads and dreaming spires but it seems very different. But then again even Oxford isn't just the university. Thanks, guys. All the best. Stephen.
Beyond Jesus Lock it is very similar to Oxford with a continuous string of ancient colleges overlooking the river and at King's, probably the most famous college view in the world.
Just above Jesus Lock the Cam is so congested with punters (ie people in punts aka boat propelled by a person with a pole) that navigation is not possible April through to October. I hope that Jo and Michael take a punt (they could hire a chauffeur punt or one to punt (it’s a verb and a noun) themselves) as the scenery is simply stunning. I worked in a college on the river for 12 years. One day I heard a tourist say, ‘is this college pre-war?; the reply came, ‘madam, it’s pre-America’! 😆
Turns out my mental image of Cambridge (much the same as you've described) comes from brochure photos taken from the Backs, the section we've not (yet) been on to ... we have a plan to visit it later this year on another boat, as I didn't want to be what an American would call a punter by paying the punters to be their punter! M
College rowing tends to take place during the afternoons, and I think you were there out of term-time as well. The non-university rowing will be mostly weekends and evenings so cruising weekday mornings is a good choice. The green spaces you referred to is one of the things that makes Cambridge seem like a large universoty campus.
Another very pretty run through, and I love that the towpaths seem to be cyclepaths too in places. But bicycles seem to rule in Cambridge because its so flat like in Dutch towns. I went punting there once and it was indeed harder than I thought, and somewhat wetter as the pole kept dripping down my arm. I managed to briefly lose the pole as well. There is a method to punting though and some people are very adept at it. I wasn't.
The trick is to find the stone towpath, along the middle of the river. Barges delivering goods to Cambridge were pulled by horses that walked on this path, as the Colleges would not allow horses on their land.
Hi to you both, thanks for the lido - pool translation. Over here punters is slang for people who bet on most things, but now I know it has a basic meaning. We just like to slang term everything here. Like bazza, Gazza, etc 😂😂 Cambridge is nice, I have seen punters (boats) there. Have a good trip around. 💜💜🙋♀️🙋♀️ oh PS will you have to go back over the wash or take that other route I see on your map.?
We're still debating whether or not (and when) to do the return up the Wash... philosophically when we get to the Grand Union that's the end of our great tour of the whole of the system, but there is that wee bit of the tidal Nene and the cut-off Welland and Glenn to think about! Not sure yet! M
As a non-Brit my first knowledge of "Mark" came from the different lineups of Deep Purple. To this day I prefer DP MKII, the Ian Gillain era. As far as "punters", I just thought of them as the fans out there in the crowd, in the cheap seats, aka "the real fans".
are you going up to Godmanchester and St Ives on your Ouse travels? Had many a childhood boating holiday on the river while we lived in Ely. Great videos and thanks for the memories. Talking of which, have you seen Streatham Engine steam pump?
The videos are a wee bit behind us, so actually yes we've been to both St. Ives and Godmanchester (where we found a delightful chippie!), really liking the whole of the Ouse system! We passed the Engine as well, but sadly at the time it was still closed to the public due to Covid. Sigh. M
@@MinimalList Great. I'll look forward to those. At St Ives we used to head for home at Ely. Thanks for the videos and memories. Boat wise I stay on the Norfolk Broads. Good boating and best wishes!
The Tube-style-ish map is indeed Jo's work, available via the link in the description below the video. You've got a really nice home river over here, glad we got here eventually! M
I dunno about most narrowboat vloggers, but quite a few people -- including one national treasure, in Cruising the Cut -- have trusted this one with their lives! M
Cambridge looks interesting, hope you enjoy your explorations. BTW, the OED agrees with me, and defines "punter" as a bettor. or gambler. OK, further along they use the word customer, but gambling comes first. That should never be your motto, BTW.
Yep ... a gambler, a customer (including, rather specifically, of prostitutes), but also one who punts a punt, and one who punts a ball in certain sports. A surprisingly flexible word. It does also have something of the connotation of a mark or patsy, in the American informal sense, because gamblers (and the customers of casinos, strip clubs, etc) are invariably the one being parted from their money. M
Is that a frog at 7.03? My eyes/brain can't comprehend it for some reason. It looks like it's made of stone. Great vlog. Thanks from a long time punter.
Michael, here you go... Punter- 1 INFORMAL•BRITISH * a person who gambles, places a bet, or makes a risky investment. * a customer or client, especially a member of an audience. * a prostitute's client. 2 AMERICAN FOOTBALL•RUGBY * a player who punts. 3 a person who propels or travels in a punt.
At 7:07 that channel at side of stairs is interesting; am guessing it is either a dog & cat slide or a bicycle track to ease crossing canal via the bridge when out cycling.
I 'm with you, Michael. I expecred a lot more to Cambridge. A whole lot more! Maybe there are on,y secret rooms for students, then professors and staff? Maybe the staff bowl in the nearest town with amenities. Let's see what tripadvisor has to say...well, there are 427 restaurants in Cambridge. Who knew? I was commissioned to do a piece on King's Chapel, which (in my head) was in Oxford. Clearly not as Christ Church is at Oxford. I did a ink drawings of King's Chapel, the Chapel at the Air Force Academy and the big new(ish) cathedral in Reykjavik, Christ Church would NOT have fit into that series, at all at all. But i am intrigued by Christ Church and its grotesques, now, and think i might do a series on THEM. And WHO CARES?! I am shuffling information around and filing it correctly in my brain and doing it outloud. I look closer and i think they are not grotesques but gargoyles. Interesting. And way way off topic. Nice video. I enjoyed the peace of the past ....6 weeks? 2 months? And hopefully it will return fairly quickly.
There's actually quite a lot to Cambridge, it's just a ways away from the river, which it turns out kind of meanders around in a loop around one side of the University. My mental image came from the Backs, it turns out, which is that section we're not allowed to venture up into yet. Hopefully we'll be visiting it again later this year with another boater! M
Simon's answer is of course correct, but the American in me would be remiss in not pointing out the other reason: British boaters are more sensible than British drivers! M
Having the 1994/1995 Cambridge University Press book, Ocean Technology Series 2, Concepts in Submarine Design, by Bircher and Rydill, I was expecting to see more submarines in the river, even though book does say ocean technology, since Cambridge isn't actually on the ocean.
Turns out I wasn't entirely mistaken ... in British English a punter is a gambler (usually on horses), a customer (including specifically a customer of prostitutes), one who punts a punting boat, and one who punts a ball (in rugby). In American English the gambler meaning takes on more of a context of someone willing to play the games the house ALWAYS wins (not the high rollers so much as the people playing shell games) and the customer meaning leans a bit more towards people who are on the losing side of the transaction ... but it's DEFINITELY not as negative in the UK as it was back "home"! M
@@MinimalList that good Michael I respect your decision as a vegetarian for me I’am a carnivore but with this cancer we’re it is I been eating soft food like fish and chips and noodle I lost a lot of weight but trying to keep a little on say hello to jo I love you guy keep up you vlog guys your friend Lance
Will take a look… Jo’s probably already seen it (she understands Twitter), but I’m currently logged out and need to find our verdammt password! Thanks for passing it along! M
@@johncallaghan8854 Strictly speaking it's the new Anglian Pass that gives access to the CamCon waters and also to the Middle Level. (Though gold licence holders don't need one until January 2022!).
As @Simon Judge points out it's the Anglian Pass... an annual license that gives us access to the Middle Level Navigations -- which this year is still covered by the Gold license we already paid extra for -- and the River Cam. Cambridge isn't the cheapest city to visit by water! M
Behave yourself Michael! Is it because you live in relative isolation on Perseverance, that your years in Britain haven't taught you the majority of English as she is spoke? Actually I envy you the view of Cambridge from the water. Addenbrookes Hospital was one of my regular, if infrequent visits outside of London - as was the Churchill in Oxford - and I never got to see much more than Trumpington High Street, Cherry Orchard Road and the inside of a rather drab 70's 'modern' hospital. (The corridors are MILES long!) After this section, I am definitely curious to know where you go from there? Will you end up on the Lea Valley Navigation or the Norfolk Broads? I've done the Broads a couple of times and have little desire to do them again, but I think the Lea Valley is where my mum used to go. Nice vlog, as usual.
The Norfolk Broads is a separate navigation system not connected to any other rivers or canals. The only way to get there is by lorry or sea in at Yarmouth i think. When u get to Cambridge u cant get any further.
From here it's the rest of the Ouse system down to Bedford, then back to do the New Bedford River (and, possibly, the Old, but that depends a lot on the condition and water levels), then the Middle Levels and the Nene and back to the Grand Union. We've already done the Lea and Stort, way back after we passed through London and before our second trip up the Thames ... sadly the Norfolk Broads are disconnected and, while I hope to get out there on a borrowed boat eventually it'll likely be a while! M
@@MinimalList I hate to be a narrowboat snob, but the standard of 'seamanship' on the broads is worse than the canals. Except for those iconic Broads sailing boats, where you have to be quicker than greased weasel poo to get the rig right after tacking and only then after working like a one armed paper hanger! I seem to remember Mark and Deb's had a bit of a 'moment' on the Nene, a year or so back. So much has happened in twenty months.
@@MinimalList Did Old Bedford River campaign cruise in 2018, turned out to be a surprisingly delightful experience and it didn’t take me long to understand why this neglected and apparently remote navigation has such a large and passionate group of supporters. If you get through Salters Lode Lk you will see how the adjacent semi-treed and scrub landscape to the west is totally different to that of the Middle Level (ML) only yards away in the same direction. You will need to book the Lock in good time in order to get the tide right to get through.
We’ll be calling ahead in the next few days to see if it’s possible… really want to do the Old Bedford, but apparently there’s some serious silting in the lock that might make it impossible. M
A gambler, a customer, a punt-boater, a ball-punter, and also (curiously specifically) one who engages the services of prostitutes. It's a strangely flexible word! M
Yeah, it's a strange word, meaning a gambler, a customer, a john, or one who uses a punt boat ... and can take on any of the meanings except the last in any context, including the last. Bizarre, really! M
Your videos are fun, but you (man) talk too much. I would rather you talked a bit about the history of the canal more and the city, and things about the boat. I visited Cambridge five years ago and biked along the canal, and I want to boat along the canal now.
