Spirit of the Vikings

This is a kayaking book with a difference. The inspiration for the journey, from Sweden to the Black Sea, via the Baltic and rivers of eastern Europe, came somewhere in Kazakhstan when David Grant, while travelling with his wife and children in a horse-drawn caravan, was reading a translation of the fictitious Viking saga Rode Orm, or Red Serpent, A life-long interest in things Viking, coupled with a wish to experience a solo expedition on a shoe-string budget, dictated that the author s longship should actually be a kayak. The route would follow approximately that of Rode Orm s vessel but continue on to the Black Sea and possibly further. The result was a fascinating journey through the waters of the Swedish Archipelago, across the Baltic to the island of Gotland and on to Riga in Latvia, where the river travel began. Up the Daugava-Dvina and its tributary the Ulla, through the disused and decaying Verebki canal and across the watershed, then down the Berezina and Dneiper, to emerge into the Black Sea.