Here we all are gathered together at the start of the punting.
The happy mariners
prepare to board the jolly craft and set sail erm I mean set punt. From
right to left we can see, mostly the backs of: David, Dave, Andrew, Brian,
Jane, Marrianne, Doug and Martin. I guess that must be Susan and Gill in
the punt.
Here Zareh stands proudly on the punt, proving that stories of him being 'under the weather'
were quite unjustified.
Martin ponders whether to take a chip from Anuja. Meanwhile Dave practices spear fishing
watched on by his hapless crew.
Zareh finally admits defeat and lets Martin take over the driving. It is alleged that
Martin did this as a summer job. He certainly knew how to drive the punt, but didn't climb any bridges.
Just to prove that we sturdy Brits can smile even when it rains.
The Pringle pirates, led by Jane, strike! Zareh offers a pringle and the bounders make
of with the entire packet.
David's punt grows a rather unfortunate figurehead in the form of Lorretta. You will
note how he is banished to the far end of the craft due to his unfortunate habit of setting fire to dried leaves.
Safely ashore we find a convenient tree stump and set about picnicking.
This may look similar to the previous shot but here we are all fed and are getting
ready to leave. Some of us took the easy route to feeding, and legged it to the pub for a quick chicken
curry and a pint.
Lorretta tries to punt and gives the crew a guided tour of both river banks, to heckles
of "where are your L plates" from all who could see. This gave much amusement to the local river community
of swans.
If fact they came from all over to watch his efforts. There was a nice gaggle of geese
further down stream but the pic didn't turn out. There were eleven geese in all or as Anuja pointed
out "Twelve if you count the duck"
Most of the locals had the sense to get out of the way. To be fair though, he did get
the hang of it and proved really quite good at it. Pity I didn't get a picture of his handbrake turn.
On Dave's punt most of the crew had a go at driving with various degrees of success.
Here we see Jane trying very hard to get the pole out of the mud.
Paul soon got the hang of going along the river rather than across it.
Anuja has a go and almost gets knocked off as Paul tries to put his pole in her hand.
At the end of the day, many of the merry crowd found their way to Dave's where a
barbeque summoned the thunder and rain storms. Here you see some taking shelter while the coals heat up
enough to burn the food. Of course, I didn't take any pictures while we were eating as I was far too busy
stuffing my face with the delights on offer.