Ferries from Skånevik ferjekai

Skånevik sits at the mouth of the Åkrafjord with 53 active sailings, and the reason to know that is Langfoss — a waterfall dropping about 612 metres into that fjord, and one of the few in Norway never harnessed for hydroelectric power.

Where the boats go

• Utåker — about 20 minutes, 15 sailings.
• Matre — about 25 minutes, 11 sailings.

Operated by Skyss.

Langfoss

The fall runs about 612 m from the plateau to the Åkrafjord in a series of steep cascades rather than a single drop. The E134 passes its foot, which makes it one of the most easily seen large waterfalls in Norway.

That it has never been dammed is unusual in a country that harnessed almost everything else, and it is why the spring volume is what it is.

⚠ A triangle, not two shuttles

One vessel works Skånevik, Utåker and Matre in rotation, so the twenty-six departures from this quay are split between two destinations on an interleaved pattern.

The boat at the ramp is going to one of two places, and on a route where the next call may be forty minutes away that is worth ten seconds of reading.

Skånevik

A small village of white wooden houses around a sheltered inlet, with a hotel that has been taking guests since the nineteenth century and a blues festival that fills the place for one weekend a year.

It is quieter than its position on the map suggests, because the main road now passes to the south.

Before you arrive

Vehicles are not booked in advance anywhere in this system — you queue, you board in the order you arrived, and the toll comes off the number plate through AutoPASS. Walking on costs nothing at all.