1992 — The second stage of the “Havorn I Austerveg” expedition

Osprey goes to the east

Date: July-August 1992
Route: Staraya Ladoga (Rus) — Novgorod (Rus) — Smolensk (Rus) — Orsha (Blr) — Kiev (Ukr) — Dnepropetrovsk (Ukr)

The second stage of the Norwegian-Russian expedition “Havorn I Austerveg” started with the conference on the Koguva Island in Estonia. The main goal of the conference was the improving the knowledge about the coastal culture of Baltic States and Scandinavia as well as about ancient trade routes from Scandinavia to the Baltic Sea, Russia and the Black Sea.

Svein Erik Oya from Norway who had graduated from shipbuilding school in Íàrdanger started to build the four-oars fish boat Erninge in Staraya Ladoga. This kind of boats is the typical for the western part of Norway. The members of the Viking-Nevo club from Smolensk took an active part in the building process. Alexandr Nasonov made the bailer for the boat accurate to the old Norwegian drawings.

On the 6 of July the international crew started the voyage against the Volkhov current from Staraya Ladoga to Novgorod by Smolensk boat Dir (the participant of four expeditions) and Norwegian boat Erninge. Then the boats were transported to Smolensk. The participant of the expedition met with the archaeologists in Gnezdovo and found out about the latest finds of the Viking Age. After that Erninge and Dir started from Gvezdovo to the meeting with the Viking ship Havorn along the Dnieper river.

During the Erninge boat building and its travel along the Volkhov river the Viking ship Havorn forced the low water of the Western Dvina river. The summer of the 1991 was very droughty and every mile of the way was passing with the superhuman effort. From Daugavpils Havorn was transported to the Dnieper river. Two branches of the expedition joined near the Rechitsa village in Belorussia. During passing the mouth of the Lovat river the ecological research work was organized and its results were produced to the Ukrainian Ministry of Ecology and to the ecological organizations.

Getting over lower Dnieper and the Black Sea successfully the expedition finished in Istanbul.