Punting is not as easy as it looks. As in rowing, you soon learn how to get along and handle the craft, but it takes long practice before you can do this with dignity and without getting the water all up your sleeve.

— Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat (1889)

Punting for pleasure was first popularised on the River Thames during the nineteenth century. Now, many years later, punts are very closely associated with Cambridge - and, to a lesser extent, the ‘other place’.

In the Fens - the wetland region to the north of Cambridge, which was drained by Dutch engineers in the eighteenth century - a similar type of vessel had long been used for transporting cargo and catching eels.

A flat bottomed boat, the punt is propelled along by a punter, who propels it using a long wooden pole that is pushed against the river bed.

Unfortunately, Robinson does not (yet) own its own punts. But there are a number of places that you can hire them from along the Cam. Alternatively, if you’d rather take in the sights in a more leisurely fashion (and without the risk of falling in), you can book a punt tour and put your feet up for a bit!