Norway
Oksfjord
Øksfjord: A Ferry Village Below the Øksfjordjøkelen Glacier
- Port traffic
- QuietNext 30 days
Good to know
What to Expect
Coastal Express ships call at the pier in Øksfjord every day, between their stops at Skjervøy and Hammerfest. The village is small, and the call may be short.
- Øksfjord is the administrative center of Loppa municipality.
- The village sits on the east side of the Øksfjorden, just south of the mouth of the fjord.
- Check your time ashore on board before you plan anything beyond a short walk.
Øksfjord on Your Own
Øksfjord is small enough to take in on a short walk, and a stop here may be brief, so keep any plan close to the pier. The church makes a simple goal for the walk.
- The village: The built-up area of Øksfjord is about a third of a square kilometer.
- Øksfjord Church: The stone church in the village dates from 1954 and seats about 210 people. It stands where earlier churches stood from 1842 and 1898.
- Getting back on time: Stops on the coastal route can be as short as a few minutes. Your ship posts the time to be back, and it will not wait for passengers who are late.
Getting Around
Most of Loppa municipality cannot be reached by car, so Øksfjord works as its ferry hub. On a short coastal call, there is little time to use them.
- Car ferries run from Øksfjord to Nuvsvåg, Bergsfjord and Sør-Tverrfjord.
- A regular ferry crosses to Hasvik, on the island of Sørøya.
- The village of Øksfjordbotn lies about 20 km to the southeast, near the border with Alta.
Tipping and Currency
In Norway a tip is a choice rather than an expectation, and it is mostly given in restaurants and bars. Plan to pay in Norwegian kroner or by card, because other currencies are seldom taken.
- Diners who tip for good service tend to add between 5 and 15 percent, with no fixed rule.
- Card and phone payments are almost universal, but a little cash is handy for small purchases.
- Amex and Diners cards are accepted in far fewer places than Visa or Mastercard.
The Glacier and the Village
Øksfjordjøkelen, the ninth-largest glacier on mainland Norway, covers about 42 square kilometers and straddles the border between Finnmark and Troms. Its top is the highest point in Loppa municipality.
- The glacier has been shrinking. Its highest point once measured 1,204 meters and is now about 1,191 meters.
- Loppa's coat of arms shows a black cormorant, a bird drawn to the fishing villages of this coast.
- The novelist and dramatist Hans E. Kinck was born and grew up in Øksfjord.
- The 2009 horror film Dead Snow is set in Øksfjord.
History
People may have lived around Øksfjord since the Stone Age, and fishing and whaling in the area appear to go back to ancient times. The village suffered in the Second World War like the rest of Finnmark, and its church had to be rebuilt.
- Traces of Mesolithic settlement have been found in Øksfjord and at several other places in Loppa.
- In 1962 a rich Viking Age woman's grave from the 9th century was found on the island of Loppa, and a longhouse from the late 8th century turned up nearby in 1964. The island gave the municipality its name and was once its center.
- Øksfjord's first church was built in 1842 and replaced in 1898.
- At one in the morning on 12 April 1941, the exiled Royal Norwegian Navy brought the destroyer Mansfield to the pier, to blow up a fish-oil factory and to show occupied Norway that its navy was still at sea. The ship left two hours later while villagers stood on the pier singing the national anthem.
- Retreating German forces burned the church to the ground in 1944. The present church went up on the same spot in 1954.
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