Ferries from Skien Hjellebrygga

The canal boat leaves Skien at 08:10 and takes 45 minutes to cover the 2.6 nautical miles to the Løveid locks. The return from Ulefoss, 11.8 miles up the waterway, is booked at 130 minutes.

Those figures are not about speed. A vessel on this route spends much of its time stationary inside lock chambers while the water level changes around it — the distance is short and the climb is not.

Hjellebrygga in Skien is where the Telemark Canal begins. The waterway was cut between 1887 and 1892 to move timber from the inland lakes to the sea, raising boats 72 metres over 105 kilometres through eighteen lock chambers, and was called the eighth wonder of the world at its opening. The timber traffic has gone; the passenger boats still run the same route every summer.