This page was created to host the photos, videos and various ephemera of the 1999 voyage of the NB Exevale.
My name is John Lesha and my brother Joseph and I traveled from our home in Rockland Massachussetes to Bunbury Shropshire UK in the autumn of 1999 to set out on an adventure on the UK canal system.
It was our father who told us that if we ever got the chance we should take a boat trip on a European river. We lost our dad when we were young and had forgoten this advice until years later when we decided that we would like to take a trip outside of the United States.
While reasearching this idea we found a documentary in which the presenter took a narrowboat across the channel and up the Seine. I can not for the life of me remember anything else about that program but I do know from the moment we viewed the boat on the canal we were hooked and the river cruise plans went out the window.
During the planning stages we did as much research as we could. We read L.T.C Rolt’s “Narrowboat”, spent countless hours on the uk.rec.waterways newsgroup and read every page of George’s canals.com website what felt like a hundred times over.
When we finally made it out of the AngloWelsh boatyard in Bunbury on the Shropshire Union aboard the NB Exevale the following two and a half weeks brought us more enjoyment than we ever thought possible.
We planned for years to return for another trip on the 20th anniversary, which is this coming October. Sadly though in 2013 my brother Joseph passed away at the age of 50 so those plans are destined to remain unfulfilled.
It recently occurred to me that as I am the only person left with the memories of that trip it falls to me to share them with anybody who may find them interesting so this site was created with that in mind.
Thanks for visiting!