A walk round Byron's Pool

Today we walked around Bryon's Pool. It is a small pleasant circular walk through woodland and next to the River Cam. It really isn’t far - the girls walked all the way round without complaining! There is plenty of car park spaces and picnic tables next to the car park (although if you walk to the furthest point there is a bench there which would be a far nicer spot). We cycled from out house and there are cycle racks there too!

Byron's Pool is named after the poet who is reputed to have swum there. His homesick poem of 1912 evokes the river:

Oh! there the chestnuts, summer through,

Beside the river make for you

A tunnel of green gloom, and sleep

Deeply above; and green and deep

The stream mysterious glides beneath,

Green as a dream and deep as death.

...

To smell the thrilling-sweet and rotten

Unforgettable, unforgotten

River-smell, and hear the breeze

Sobbing in the little trees.

Say, do the elm-clumps greatly stand

Still guardians of that holy land?

The chestnuts shade, in reverend dream,

The yet unacademic stream?

—"The Old Vicarage, Grantchester", Collected Poems (1916)

The girls enjoyed walking next to the river where there are little jetties (presumably used for fishing) and looking for evidence of river life! It would be great to go back and pond dip there!  There are also lots of benches to sit down as you walk around and a bridge for pooh sticks! Obviously care has to be taken - there were lots of nettles, open water and a weir!

 I love these little treasure troves in Cambridge - it felt like we were miles from anywhere (although there was some traffic noise from the M11).