Woodlife Trails

I spent Saturday afternoon in the woods and achieved…well not much really. I managed to get a couple of nice pics of the Early purple orchid growing on the south side of the wood.

Sunday brought yet another fine day (hardly any rain in the UK for a month now) and I decided to seek out my next venture, which is to hire a canoe and explore the rivers around Cambridge area. On the spur of the moment, Mrs Pablo and I set off towards Cambridge (Mrs Pablo came on the assurance that I wouldn’t attempt to get her in a canoe!)

After a short journey (40 minutes by car) we ended by the banks of the River Cam itself. With no address for the canoe hire company (apparently they drop off the canoes at selected points) we were on to a loser from the start, however being such a wonderful day, we decided to stick around for the whole day, wandering up and down the river bank, exploring the college architecture and having a go on one of the punts. Hardly Bushcraft but highly enjoyable nevertheless and great fun.

It was quite inspiring and relaxing to punt up-river under the university bridges thinking of those who had studied at the different colleges that make up Cambridge University. Isaac Newton, Bacon, Babbage, Turing, AA Milne, and Darwin.

My post-compulsory academic career started just 7 years ago, only recently obtaining a Masters degree and I reflected on a missed opportunity of studying at such fine institutions when I was younger, although I wouldn’t have swapped this for the life experiences I gained in the services. The whole place put me in a philosophical frame of mind. It was nice to drift and dream. Dream of earlier days, what could have been and what inevitably was. “From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge” as the non-literal translation of Cambridge University motto goes. I could almost feel it seeping through the bricks and into the river itself.

I’ll be back mid-week with that Companion Mk 2 review.

Pablo