On our last visit to England in 2017, while touring Norfolk and Suffolk, our adventures often took us to the river. We punted along the River Cam in Cambridge. We cruised along the Norfolk Broads. England's canal and river system seemed a delight for holidaymakers. I could imagine, if my wife and I lived there, regularly partaking of such riparian outing.
While staying in the picturesque town of Loddon, people docked their ships in the harbor, or tied them up along the river. Signs told boaters where they could leave their boats for free, and for how how long. It seemed a pleasant and carefree way to spend one's vacation, tooling along the river, spending each night in another historic village, and never having to worry about booking hotels.
One afternoon, while resting in our room in Loddon, we flipped channels, and came upon a couple taking a riverboat journey. The woman was Prunella Scales, who had played Basil Fawlty's ever-suffering wife in "Fawlty Towers," and socialite Miss Elizabeth Mapp in the 1980s miniseries "Mapp & Lucia," based on the novels of E. F. Benson. Prunella Scales and husband Timothy West cruised along beautiful stretches of English canals in their TV series "Great Canal Journeys." I wished I could watch the series in America, so I could see more of their riparian adventures.
A TV program showed up on Amazon Prime a few months ago. Titled "Travels By Narrowboat," and produced by Country House Gent, the host Kevin chronicled his own adventures cruising UK waterways. Unlike Prunella and her husband, Kevin had reached a nadir in his life. In order to find healing and purpose, and perhaps even redemption, he had sold everything he owned, and purchased a boat. Chronicling his adventures became not just a pasttime, but a way of life. He didn't just travel aboard a boat, he lived on it.
Kevin has been traveling aboard his narrowboat for two years or so now. As he's journeyed from place to place, he's uploaded his videos to Youtube. Since they appeared on Amazon Prime, we've sped through his last two years in two months, and now await the completion of his current journey for more. Like many of us, the COVID-19 outbreak brought his life to a standstill. We wish him well, and hope he can resume his life aboard Britain's waterways soon.
Through "Travels By Narrowboat," Kevin has made us look at our five trips to England in a different way. In traveling through areas like the English Midlands and Yorkshire, he's taken us to places we've been, and shown us new ones worth visiting. Better yet, he has done it all aboard a ship called Aslan, named after the great lion in the seven-book series The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis.
Not surprisingly, he has found healing and purpose, and a new outlook on life, thanks to his journey aboard a ship named after a figure of love and redemption.
With everything that's going on right now, I don't know when, or even if, we'll visit Britain again. If we do, Kevin's journey has suggested an entirely different way to find joy and renewal in his country. That, I think you'll agree, is a great gift indeed.
Dragon Dave
Related Links
Travels By Narrowboat on Facebook
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