Punting in Oxford...

Unfortunately we only spent one day in Oxford, but that day certainly deserves a post of its own...

We caught the Oxford tube in London and mostly slept through the 2 hour trip, so when we woke up we were magically in Oxford. Quite a pretty city really. The first thing we did was go to lunch with a family friend, Simon. He took us to a lovely little place called the Trout Inn, where some of the Inspector Morse series have been filmed. We ate a lovely lunch seemingly surrounded by fellow Australians and ducks.



After lunch we went to visit the Pitt and Rivers museum - a lovely small museum with everything from dinosaurs to shrunken heads, and specimens that you could play with as well! We also made sure that Cam got a photo with one of his heros Charles Darwin.



In the afternoon we met up with some friends, Will and Sandy - 2 doctors we met in Papua New Guinea when they were doing their final elective. They took us out and made sure our short stay in Oxford was memorable. They took us on a lightning tour of some of the historical colleges - we squeaked the mound, and saw the choir stalls at New. But the first really important stops were a couple of pubs, including the one where Bob Hawke had set the record for the fastest 'down' of a yard glass...



The boys pointed out that one can't visit Oxford without punting, so they bought supplies and we spent the next few hours on the Thames (known as the Issis in Oxford) in a punt.



For those not familiar with punts, they are small square bottomed boats that aren't all that stable. Although they had both punted before we explored a part of the river neither of them had ever been to, and boy were there some surprises in store. After a while the river became overgrown and we kept drifting through the foliage, getting scratched, covered in pollen, and trying not to wet ourselves with laughter.




There were also incidents of the pole getting stuck in the water, and the pole getting stuck in the trees above which led to a very wet Will. Although it may not sound like much, let us assure you that this was possibly the most hilarious part of our whole trip.

After drying off we departed for a bbq 'Oxford style'. Comforting to know that student parties are the same world round - we ended up drinking cocktails out of a saucepan. We also caught up with an old friend of Cam's, Sebastian.

Oxford was a lovely place, and we must thank Will and Sandy for showing us such a great time! We hope that we return to you both the same hospitality on this side of the world sometime!