The Vikings Have Landed
DO YOU BELIEVE...? Vikings sailed to Kent in 1949 !!
It is true...
In 1949 an adventurous voyage of 1500km was embarked by 53 Danish gents to mark the 1500th anniversary of the 449AD sailings of the Vikings to England. In 449AD the Vikings landed at Pegwell Bay and other locations along the east coast of the country. For this Virtual you will be visiting an amazing vessel who made this 1500km journey, which is permanently on display here for free...!
Moving forward, 2019 now marks the 70th anniversary of this extraordinary adventure across the seas to our fine shores here in Kent.
This very vessel, Hugin, (pronounced HOO-gin) was a reconstruction of a Viking longship, the 890AD Gokstad. Hugin was a gift from the Danish government commemorating the 1500th anniversary of the arrival of Hengist and Horsa to England. This replica travelled for many days under the power of sails and sweeps alone from Denmark across to Kent. Leaving Frederikssund, Denmark this ship rowed and sailed for days around Denmark and across the channel, finally landing on 28th July 1949, to quite a reception in Broadstairs at Main Bay, which had been renamed appropriately to “Viking Bay” !!
To log this Virtual...
1. Please attach a photo to your find log of yourself or a personal item at the location with the Hugin behind you.
(Faces are not required but of course in the age of Selfies, give us your best Viking impressions...!)
2. Answer the following 3x Qs by sending an email or message to myself (using the links available above) to these Questions...
Q1... (on the stone) Who unveiled the stone...?
Q2... (from the notice board) How many towns and cities with blue dots along the maritime heritage trail (England and France)...?
Q3... (from the blue plaque) What is the date of the invasion...? (PS it’s not 449 bizarrely)
And if you are interested there is much more information available about this amazing adventure...
Here is a short 2 minute video of the Vikings landing in 1949...
released by British Pathe
And a full account of the journey by one of the Vikings, here...
Placed with kind permission from East Kent Country Parks Team.
Details on this and other Kent Country Parks is here... https://www.kent.gov.uk/leisure-and-community/kent-country-parks
The country park does have pay and display parking. (Waypointed) This carpark is monitored by ANPR for parking enforcement, a penalty notice could be issued if a pay and display ticket is not purchased.
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.