The Bumps

The weather predictions here seem to be more hit and miss than in Arkansas. So, when on the first day of the Bumps the sky appeared to be clear, we headed out to watch the Bumps. For the record, it's roughly 4 miles out and 4 miles back. I checked. You can see the path we followed on the map above.

Bill was wearing his brand new souvenir picnic backpack, complete with a bottle of chilled white wine. He looked like a Boy Scout on his first camp out and had the enthusiasm of a scout for the first couple of miles!

Here is a team headed toward the starting point...several bridges down river! I think the group of weeping willows is quite lovely.

Here's our picnic spread. My souvenir was the picnic blanket (blue) which is waterproof--a wise investment given all of the rain we've been having. Our little "basket" includes acrylic wine glasses (that don't stand upright on grassy surfaces), plates, a cutting board, a tablecloth and napkins, and cutlery. Our menu consisted of pate', melba toast, a cheese with dried cranberries, cucumber and ham sandwiches, dried fruits, nuts, cherry-chocolate cookies, and fizzy water.

Here is a little riverboat making its way down the River Cam.

Below are a group of boats headed toward the starting poing.

A rare glimpse of blue sky!

It was the first day of the Bumps. This photographer appears to be sleeping on the job.

I should explain why this regatta, of sorts, is called the Bumps. The river is quite narrow. Instead of the boats lining up side-by-side to race, they must line up in single file. Their position in the heat is determined by their success in the past. Basically, it's like playing tag with 8-person crewing boats. The men, below, succeeded in bumping the boat ahead of them. They will move up in the placement of boats in the next heat and get to wear laurel wreaths to mark their success in this heat.

You can recognize your team by the blades. Wolfson's blades are below and should not be confused with Robinson College's blades that have two yellow stripes. For more information on the blades, please check out the link below:
http://www.oarspotter.com/blades/UK/Uni/CambridgeUni.htmlhttp://www.oarspotter.com/blades/UK/Uni/CambridgeUni.html

Sky (cloudy again), cows, boat, grass!

Here is a look at the Bumps. I had an even better video, subject-wise, where you could see an actual bump that took place right in front of us, as well as a duck high-tailing it (literally) out of the path of a boat. It also showed that we were on a narrow strip of grass between the river and the bike path. The bike path becomes a seriously dangerous strip of land because the teams' spotters race along the path giving updates to the crews as to their relative positions. Not only are they (the spotters) moving quite fast, but they are also keeping a constant eye on the river and not on the path. Unfortunately, I had inadvertently hit the closeup setting on my camera, so that entire video clip is out of focus. Nevertheless, this one, in focus, demonstrates how the bumps work. I should add that there seem to be about 6 boats per heat, although we were a bit down-river from the start. Since some were eliminated closer to the start line(s), it was a little hard to tell with certainty just how many start each heat. It was wise to visit the Bumps the day we did. The chilly, damp weather returned. The Bumps last four days.