05+Roing+the+vikingship

Visiting Kasterrudborgen Kasterudborgen is an old fortress from prehistoric time. The 1500 yearold fortification were build near road or water for defends of the enemy. You can see leavings of a 40 meter long stonewall and it is protected by a steep climb from the river side. It was used by local people to seek refuge when attacked by other tribes. A cache was found at **N 61° 08.416 E 010° 23.455 ﻿﻿** **The trip :** It was a great day with nice weather and we met up with the modern viking Kai at the shores of the River Lågen .The goal of the trip was to row up the river to Kastrudborgen.We rowed against the stream, with 8 young strong rowers we made a speed of 2- 3 km/h.Downstream we made a good 7-8 km/h. **The boat : is a genuin newbuild copy of a vikingship build by** Jacob Helset i Bjørkedalen at Sunnmøre on the westcoast of Norway. The same boattype is still in use today but normally without the dragenhead. The skip has a rig with a mast of 7.85 m and a 16m2 sail of brown draclon. To sail you normally nead 800 kg ballast. The optimal crew would be 5 experienced sailors. **The roing** :The boat has 10 oars and the optimal rowing- crew would be 6 or more.A crew of ten rowers can make a speed of 5 km/h if in rytm. Rytm of rowers is more important than strenght. The stroke rower is the one in charge of the rythm and pace. All rowers in the boat needs to keep a sharp eye on the stroke. The treasurescrew learned quickly and when not talking to much got very positiv feedback from Kai the Viking who for the intire trip kept us sharp and awake.
 * The Fortification :**

**The fortification** : we need more time to write about the fortification - It is notdescribe in other sources. So while we investigate you can have a look a H history channels program about the Vikings from North - In the film you will hear Opplands of Norway mentioned( Lillehammer is in todays district of Oppland . The vikings H channel  media type="custom" key="9654378" Pictures