Hi everyone!
Today is the day to present to you my belated blogpost on OPIG punting (or OPunting for short). I promise I was not procrastinating on writing it. I am currently not in Oxford, as I am visiting beautiful Zurich as proved by the photo below.
Anyway, this blogpost is not about how much I enjoy Switzerland and Spezial Bratwursts.
OPunting took place on sunny/cloudy August 31st. About 20 ±1 OPIGlets were allocated into 5 punts, which were full of healthy snacks and drinks. We sailed off from the Cherwell Boathouse with the usual plan to punt to the Victoria Arms, where people could stretch their legs and have a pint (or two) of an ice cold beverage of their choice.
And so we were off:
If you did not know, Javi is always there to have your back if needed. As you can see below, Lucian seemed to run out of energy, but Javi was already there to replenish Lucian’s energy level. This shows the true spirit of OPIG.
We were glad to have Eoin as the captain of our punt. As being one of the most experienced punters in OPIG, he knew that staying close to other OPIG punts would greatly slow them down and they would never make it to the Victoria Arms. And Eoin was right, as we arrived to our destination much faster than other. Cheers!
Whilst we were finishing our beverages, others still struggled to get to the pub.
Things got quite competitive on the way back to the Cherwell Boathouse as Charlotte organized a race whereby five first year OPIGlets were selected as punters. Fergus I was a bit too eager to win the race and lost his balance, thus going for a short swim in the river Cherwell.
As there were no rules stated for this race, OPIGlets did their best to stop others from winning. The most common act of sabotage was stealing someone’s punting pole. Our punting pole was stolen by Chalotte’s punt, but it did not stop us from winning the race.
Whilst many OPIGlets were competing, others took it easy and enjoyed their day to the maximum.
After returning punts back to the Cherwell Boathouse, all of us (except for Matt) headed to a local pub, the name of which I cannot remember. On this note, I would like to conclude my blogpost on our annual eventful OPunting.
Best,
Alex
