In the evening we were already there.
The Rybachiy and Sredny peninsulas have been a military specially protected area for decades. Then probably no one even dreamed of traveling through them. They knew that there, in the northernmost mainland of Russia, off the shores of the Arctic Ocean, there are peninsulas on which there are military, missilemen and border guards who guard against European enemies.
The first desire that immediately arose when setting up the tent was to preserve these flowers and grass. Do not trample them with your feet, let alone with your wheels.
They already got to be born in these harsh climatic conditions.
3.
4.
In the 90s, Gorbachev made concessions to the civilized worlds and withdrew the military from the peninsula. Since then, the Russians have acquired another vast territory for travel, recreation and fishing.
5.
The military then left, but the territory was not transferred by status. The Rybachy and Sredny peninsulas are hovering in the air without a specific belonging status. Military settlements were abandoned. Valuables were stolen by marauders, and time and the north winds picked up the baton.
Everywhere you look, there are remnants of military equipment, garbage from the military and from new travelers. These objects only rush with sadness and disappointment. I didn't want to take pictures.
6.
A wave of logs from some kind of structure were thrown out along the entire shores of Rybachiy Bay.
7.
When we drove to a store in Murmansk to buy tackle for sea fishing and along the way picked up food, he noticed that the city had not yet had time to repair the city after the German bombings.
The road from Murmansk to the svorotok to the peninsulas took a couple of hours.
From the asphalt road leading to Norway after the checkpoint, after a few hundred meters, as we turned to the right, we immediately entered the USSR in 1943.
Although I was warned, I was still shocked by such hellish roads. It turns out that "German bombers bombed the roads pointwise."
100 km to the destination, we walked in 10 hours. Although our car is a real SUV, it was still hit by the bottom hundreds of times.
Despite the fact that such hellish roads were not only on our way, but in all directions. As in that fairy tale: if you go there, you break the wheels, if you go here, you leave the car.
9.
10.
Only real extremists travel along these so-called roads, where there is danger at every meter.
11.
Rivers overcame, small surviving bridges, fords, puddles and mud alternated. Therefore, the peninsula is held in high esteem among travelers, jeepers, fishermen, squares, snowmobilers.
12.
Here and there broken cars on the road ...
13.
Nature, with its, at first glance, scarcity, did not allow looking away from itself. It is a pity that we didn’t succeed in taking pictures, we stopped a couple of times. There was no time for that.
14.
In a couple of places on our way, there were some stencils not worthy of respect, that this territory was like a natural park. So, somewhere there are offices, employees who receive salaries.
15.
What are they doing, maybe they have built a gazebo, and that is unlikely.
16.
At the next monument.
17.
Thousands of soldiers died on the peninsulas. Many monuments. Some of them are in good condition.
18.
Abandoned monuments are plentiful in peninsulas like this one.
Upon closer inspection, one can see a dozen gravestones overgrown with grass.
And in cities, we celebrate Victory Day pompously and arrange an immortal regiment.
19.
In fact, it is not surprising that the monuments are abandoned. If at the very city of the hero of Murmansk, the monuments are being destroyed and there is no one to repair them, then it was not worth expecting a better attitude towards them in the distance.
20.
21.
There is no one to get permission to fish. So, at least as much as you can catch, at least in tons of fish, crabs, shrimps, harvest.
Perhaps we were in the status of a poacher once we fished without a license.
22.
There was a sea of \u200b\u200bfish in the sea ..))
Different fish at a depth seemed to be waiting for a spoon to be immediately attacked and to catch on a hook.
There were also strangers, like this seemingly terrible fish.
We let her go back to sea just in case. Then they learned that the delicacy is the rarest.
23.
We got such freaks from the depths of the sea
24.
The fish was caught so well that from the very first day the question arose "where to put it?"
The most cunning fishermen from the team on the very first day went to sea in a hurry and from the heart fished as many as two boxes of different fish. So on the second, third day fishing was taboo. Do not throw it away?
Then they caught as much as they could eat. And they caught fish selectively, which they did not eat yesterday.
25.
Fried flounder fish, oh what a delicious taste!
26.
They cooked food on gas. By the way, there are no trees as such on Rybachye. Some small handicraft, from which a full-fledged fire cannot be made.
Semeshkin Anatoly Konstantinovich at the workplace.
27.
28.
29.
Keith liked our presence on the shore and every day he approached us a hundred meters and defiantly blew out boiling water from himself through the pipes. Give him a hole and water seeped out.
30.
We wanted to catch a whale for dinner. They consulted and consulted and decided not to.
31.
Shashlik from some large fish and Armenian vodka went well.
32.
A group of fishermen from Arkhangelsk, in two cars and with trailers, specialized in crabs. They had conditions for storing fish. Therefore, they boldly caught both fish and crabs.
Moreover, they knew where and how to set the nets and traps.
I even helped them for a minute to release the crab from the net. But he ate as much as he could. Before that, I only knew the taste of crab from those sticks that are sold in stores. Deliciously unbelievable.
It turns out that there are too many crabs in these parts. Once they were brought from Kamchatka to breed, so much was divorced that either through the bay, or through the isthmus, they crossed into the waters of Norway.
The paradox is that the Norwegians industrially catch crabs and sell them in bulk, including to Russia.
And in Russia, mafiosi are responsible officials, even amateur fishing is not allowed. Although unofficially, but quite legally, crabs are sold in Murmansk at every corner, wholesale and retail, and in any form.
Our team did not know how and did not catch crabs. But, they ate when the Arkhangelsk peasants treated us, and they always treated us.
33.
The crab, which I lowered to the ground, turned out to be warlike and attacked me and wanted to eat me. But I managed to get away ..
34.
It turns out that crabs should be boiled in sea water to keep them longer.
35.
When, on the way back at the airport, I saw what they were selling crabs for and counted how many rubles I ate in those 10 days, I already felt sick. It was possible to buy a supported inamark for this money.
36.
Although the Arkhangelsk people showed us a way to fish for crabs, but for us Uralians it was not a feasible dream. Bring such things with you, etc.
By the way, sometimes, but very rarely, and only when good people come to Rybachy, then the peninsula is warm, and such that you can sunbathe and dive into the sea. What we did.
37.
38.
It was so hot that they only cooled with watermelons. Like this watermelon eater.
39.
They swam in the northernmost mainland of Russia off the coast of the Arctic Ocean. Since there were no women within a radius of one hundred kilometers, they swam without swimsuits.
40.
The sea water was very clear! All the fish in it off the coast were visible despite the fact that fish and crabs relieve themselves here, not counting the whale.
41.
On Rybachye, the weather is extremely changeable. The way it should be in the northern part of Russia, it is windy, cold, rains with snow, then the sun with squall wind and rain.
What we have felt for ourselves. A squall wind instantly tore off the fishermen's tent, though I don't remember where they came from to drink vodka on the peninsula.
42.
It turned out that the sea here flows in and out every day at the same time, no matter what the weather is outside.
A wave from the sea immediately flooded the rubber boats. Then a lot of people could not drag them to the shore.
43.
In the photo is the caretaker of the Izhevsk group. The most cruel man. He always looked into the distance and commanded: "Take a ton of fish here, take a ton of crabs there! .."
44.
For the slightest disobedience, he almost tore my friend to pieces.
Just kidding, staged shots. Kindest man
45.
Some Izhevsk guys picked cloudberries and cooked jam in the camp. What can you say, fellows, prudently brought sugar and dishes with them.
And the cloudberries were very tasty and sweet with sourness.
46.
47.
I wonder how all this junk in the photo fit in one car, as well as four healthy men and another nasty dog. Otherwise, it is expensive for everyone to travel in his own car so far. And ditch the car on these roads.
48.
The only houses on the peninsula built for tourists in the last 20 years. The toilet is outside. To wash in the sea .. Conditions are slightly better than in a tent.
49.
But in his tent, although the mess is constant all the time, it is cozy and warm ...
Because its own !!!
50.
The peninsulas for the USSR during the war with the Germans were important in defense. Then the defense of Rybachy, Sredny was built in such a way as to repel attacks from the sea. From the shores, our troops controlled the movements of the German fleet in the Barents Sea and did not allow them to reach Murmansk.
And now, various types of structures were visible at every meter, if you look closely.
Non-exploded anti-submarine boats bombing on the shores of the Barents Sea.
51.
Classic technical solution.
52.
It is not clear the purpose of this 4-5 cm thick nail punched into a stone. Probably from the days of the Vikings.
53.
54.
It is for this reason that the peninsulas have truly become a historical museum territory.
On the road to Zubovka, the most continental northern edge of Russia, on the side of the roads, our "guide" showed rock paintings of the Stone Age.
Who in those centuries painted in these harsh lands, Finns, Russians or Norwegians, did not understand.
55.
The Vikings (Norwegians) used to live on the peninsulas, and they left their cultural mark, in the form of the ruins of trading posts, mounds of graves.
56.
Our military left a fresh and fatly uncivilized mark in the form of destroyed structures.
Norway at home, even further north than the peninsula, created paradise conditions for life. We have become one of the lucky ones in the world.
In the meantime, around on the peninsulas there are only frightening ruins.
57.
On the other hand, there are submarines off the coast ...
59.
He left Rybachy with complete frustration, but with the intentions to return here again.
I would like to return, but not in a jeep with a trailer. Stay in a cozy hotel, catch fish without fear of being a poacher, eat crabs, travel around the peninsula, go into your room in the evening, look out of the window at the cold winds, wrap yourself in a blanket and sleep until dawn.
60.
Can the Vikings or Finns lease the peninsulas? And for us, on account of offset, to come for a couple of weeks to relax like a human being for free?
Surely there will be inaccuracies in the story, so correct it.
It is important, if you liked the post, support me with a like, comment.
To see Rybachy and not die ... with delight, well, at least try. These words very accurately reflect the emotions from visiting the northernmost European part of Russia. It feels like moving around the peninsula, you pass through several countries: there are mountains, and the sea, and waterfalls, and lakes, and even different seasons.
As one member of the "Opening the Silver Necklace" expedition said: "This is the coolest thing I've seen in my life!"
Until recently, the peninsula was a closed territory, so you can only get here by car.
The Rybachiy Peninsula is located on the Lapland coast of the Arctic Ocean. Between the mainland and the Rybachy peninsula is the Sredny peninsula. Many consider these peninsulas to be a single peninsula and call them one name - Rybachy. In this vast territory there are only four bases where a traveler can stay.
We got to know Rybachy with the help of mega hospitable guys from the base "Cool North"... We were late for a trip across the peninsula on ATVs - the weather did not allow, so we mastered the territory on a GAZ-66, among the people - shishiga.
Here she is a fire-machine - Shishiga, which passes such roads, mountains and fords that one can only wonder.
After the Second World War, mainly military and geologists lived on the peninsula. In the 90s Rybachy was practically empty, so roads and bridges in many places are in such a state that overcoming them becomes a quest. But Shishiga coped with everything and the members of the expedition are now happily sitting in their homes on the mainland.
During two days of travel across the peninsula, we saw 2 people and one car.
Barents Sea. After 2200 km from here is the North Pole.
Despite its northern position, the Rybachy Peninsula is the warmest place in the Murmansk region and the entire Russian north. Off the coast of the peninsula, the sea does not freeze all year round.
White lambs do not let go of the waves of the Barents Sea, I do not want to leave. The sea, although cold, is so attractive in the sun. But our guide urges us on: "You haven't seen so much yet !!!"
After the lowland waterfalls of Karelia and the mainland Murmansk region, the Rybachy waterfalls amaze with their height and power.
One coast, and the weather is changing at a cosmic speed.
At the entrance to Cape Kekursky, the clouds scattered and the sun came out.
Probably the most picturesque rocks of the peninsula are located on the cape. At once bagpipes sounded in my ears, and a Scottish cage flashed in my eyes, like in the TV series "Highlander", which I saw to the holes in my adolescence :)
Guba-Vaida is located near Cape Kekursky, as guides and books say, there was a Kegor bargaining site, where the British, Danes, and Dutch sailed to sell their goods. From here these goods were already going to Arkhangelsk and Moscow.
Mount Motka met with snow and fog, because of which we could not see anything. Although we were told that the views here are more beautiful than from Cape Kekursky.
During the war, a divisional command post was located on this mountain. In general, we were warned that we must definitely look at our feet, because on Rybach you can still find "echoes of war".
Bloggers are bloggers. There are no species, but there is Internet from Megafon. I had to stay here and disrupt the peninsular Internet detox program.
If you love abandoned buildings, then you have something to see here. The Bolshoye Ozerko garrison was disbanded in 1987, and by the 90s everyone left the village.
The village had a hospital, a school, a canteen, a diesel station and even a museum.
In the 60s and 70s, the first five-storey house on the peninsulas with all utilities appeared.
When you walk around someone else's apartment, you see that there is a stove in every kitchen, you realize what incredible work it took to build all this on the peninsula and how hard it was for people to arrange their life.
It is a pity that all efforts have gone to waste and no one else needs it.
We go to the next waterfall.
Photos do not convey all the beauty and power of Rybachy's nature. You look at the camera screen and everything seems flat, small. I would like to ask for a camera and only absorb everything that you see around.
Want to see the mushrooms that are higher than the trees? Here they are - aspen mushrooms.
And there is no way to stop the desire to tell the world about what he saw, and right away. All the same Megafon periodically gave us this opportunity.
Surely listening to something on Storitel about the origin of the Northern Sea Route :)
On the roads there are barrels filled with stones with a sticking pole - landmarks. We were told that this also remained from the military.
Cape German, next to it is the village of Vaida-Guba, which houses a meteorological station and a lighthouse. As the northernmost point of the European part of Russia, the cape attracts thousands of tourists.
Alas, there was quite a lot of plastic on the shore (Greta, you were right) and the remains of a whale that was thrown out 3 years ago. There are also many cairns here. It is believed that when building a pyramid, one makes a wish and the stronger and larger the structure, the more likely it is that dreams will come true.
Well, here we are at the End of the Earth!
MMP-1966 - 2008 Heroic Rybachy. (Part 1).
Almost most of my life connected me with the Rybachy Peninsula. For the first time I got to Rybachy in July 1966 on the steamer "Ilya Repin", when I arrived in Murmansk, as a cadet of the LMU - for an annual practice. Later, I went to the Rybachy Peninsula, already in navigator and captain positions on MMP passenger ships: Ilya Repin, Petrodvorets, Akop Hakobyan, Vologda, Klavdiya Elanskaya, Kanin and mx "Polaris". My last visit to Rybachy was at mt "Polaris" in the summer of 2007, when Rybachy was being mastered by specialists of the Murmansk Shipping Company who were looking for oil on the peninsula. I then told N.V. Kulikov that he would not get oil in these places. And so it happened ...
I still have the best memories of this land, sacred for all Murmansk residents. Many of my years were devoted to the peninsula, when the ships of the shipping company stood on the regular passenger line Murmansk - Ozerko, providing the residents of the entire peninsula with everything they needed. Communication with the mainland was carried out at that time mainly through the MMP passenger ships. Another year I visited Ozerko up to a hundred times a year, walked and traveled the peninsula far and wide. I have special and best memories for the period 1988-2003, when Colonel Viktor Viktorovich Kudelya, my good friend and the last commander of the entire peninsula, was in command of the brigade in Ozerko. Despite the fact that a lot has been written about the Rybachiy Peninsula in the literature and, especially, about its heroic pages during the Great Patriotic War, I want to devote my attention to my beloved land in terms of my memories. I would also like to make a small historical excursion into the past of the Rybachiy Peninsula.
The Rybachiy Peninsula (Sami village Giehkirnjrga, Finnish Kalastajasaarento, Norwegian Fiskerhalvya) is a peninsula in the north of the Kola Peninsula. Administratively Rybachy is part of the Pechenga district of the Murmansk region. It is washed by the Barents Sea and the Motovsky Bay. It is a plateau that abruptly drops off to the sea. The plateau is composed of clay shales, sandstones and limestones. Height up to 300 m. Tundra vegetation. Off the coast of the peninsula, the sea does not freeze all year round thanks to the warm North Cape Current. The coastal waters are rich in fish (herring, cod, capelin, etc.). Sredny peninsula is located to the south of the peninsula. A relatively large bay - Zubovskaya Bay juts out into the peninsula from the north for 3.5 kilometers.
Since ancient times, in the coastal waters of Rybachy Pomors have been fishing. In the 17th century, there were 16 fishing camps with 109 fishing huts. Since the 16th century, the name Rybachy Peninsula has already been mentioned. Dutch traveler Guyen van Linshoten (English), a member of the 1594 expedition, mentions that he saw "the land of Kegoth, called the Fishing Peninsula." Stephen Barrow (English) On June 23, 1576, after traveling to the northern shores of Russia, during interrogation, he claims that he was in the village of Kigor, and in his diaries for 1555 he mentions the Kegorsky Cape (now German). At this place there was a lively bargaining through which the trade of the Russian state with Europe went. In 1826, when the border between the Russian Empire and Norway was drawn, the peninsula was assigned to Russia, despite the fact that Norwegian settlers lived on the peninsula. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were 9 colonies of Norwegians and Finns on the peninsula, in which 500 people lived. After Finland gained independence, the western part of the peninsula was ceded to the Finns, which was returned to the Soviet Union after the Soviet-Finnish war.
During the Great Patriotic War, fierce battles between Soviet and German troops took place on the peninsula and coastal waters. In Murmansk, a street is named after the soldiers who defended the strategic peninsula. After the end of the war, the peninsula was heavily militarized, as it was in close proximity to a NATO member country - Norway. Currently, most of the military garrisons are completely closed here. Quite recently, the territory of the Rybachiy Peninsula was finally opened to the public. And immediately dozens of jeeps, all-terrain vehicles and hundreds of fans of the northern extreme rushed here ...
The Rybachy Peninsula is truly the end of the earth. The northernmost point of the European part of Russia is located here. This is especially acute when standing on a cliff, at the edge of the ocean, squinting from the strong north wind. Behind the back - the "space balls" of the radar station and the pointing finger of the lighthouse, and in front, as far as the eye can see, is the water space. Naturally, Rybachy is a closed area. But it was possible to get here absolutely legally by requesting the appropriate permission from the border guards in advance. The only people to whom the entrance is still closed are foreigners. Previously, this small bare piece of land, surrounded on all sides by water, was literally packed with military units. Norway, a NATO member, is just a stone's throw away, and all the waterways to our northern ports pass by. Now everything has changed.
The troops were withdrawn, the remaining small units look frightening: gloomy shabby barracks, scattered remains of equipment, dirty, wolf-like conscripts looking from under their brows. I don't want to look at all this.
From Murmansk to Rybachy, if you go by car, it is only a few hours away. But this path is extremely interesting. The landscape changes literally every ten kilometers. Still dense forests give way to light forests, they are replaced by "northern dwarfs", and even further north - and they disappear from view. A thin shrub can be found only in the lowlands between the rocks, and everywhere mosses, lichens and some kind of grasses that have taken root here, which still manage to bloom here, dominate. This is the real tundra. Only the tundra is not low and swampy, but rocky. Small mountain ranges run across the entire peninsula, forming a fantastic unique relief. In the valleys, if you can call them that, there are a great many transparent lakes, swamps, streams and rivulets. All this, following the usual cliché, I would like to call a space landscape, but in fact, of course, the landscape is the most earthly, it is simply difficult to find the appropriate epithets to describe it. It is much easier to tell about the tropics, where there is a riot of colors and a constant celebration of life. And here there seems to be nothing but wind, rocks, stones, water and moss, but all this is so mesmerizing that sometimes you want to look at this picture, without stopping, for hours.
But back in the thirties it was crowded here, Russians, Finns, Sami lived here, there was even a whole Norwegian village with the bird's name Tsyp-Navolok. Here is what is written about the former population of Rybachy in the "Guide to the North of Russia" (S.-Pb., 1898, p. 78):
- “On the eastern shore of the Rybachy Peninsula, next to Tsip Navolokom, there is Korabelnaya Bay, which for a long time was enlivened by the activity of the factor, founded here by the St. Petersburg merchant Pallisen, who then passed to the merchant Zebek and from him to the Rybak society. The ship factor left a noticeable trace of its activity in our Murmansk and White Sea fisheries by using the American purse seine to catch herring and capelin and introducing frostbite to preserve the bait. " I borrowed this quote from the book of my friend, a great connoisseur of the Kola land, Murmansk writer Mikhail. Nuts "Orphaned Shores" published on the Internet at his own website. The photo posted there shows Mikhail Oresheta with a beard and a megaphone in his hands, along with an unnamed border guard, as well as our former enemy, and now German friend Gerhard Dag and the head of North Sea schoolchildren Galina Penkova. Misha is a local historian and historian who has dedicated his life to our northern land.
It is a pleasure to walk on the tundra - you can see everything many kilometers ahead and almost at every step you meet something unusual and different, now an exotic animal, now an unexploded mine that has lain from the war. Here, literally, a motley partridge jumps out from under her feet and, diligently pretending that she is not all right with her health, begins to lead you away from her brood. Usually, pretending to believe, I follow her, keeping a distance, not moving away, but not letting close either. Then I turn around and see how she, convinced that I am at a safe distance for her family, squeaking loudly, hurrying back from both her paws - to the children.
Fish is also found here, of course, - where would the name Rybachy Peninsula come from then? And this fish is truly royal: brown trout, trout, delicious salmon.
All over Rybachye there are hundreds of streams, rivers and lakes with this wonderful fish. I fished constantly at Rybachye in all seasons and with great success.
And once, in the middle of the 19th century, Rybachye and whales were "swung" not without success. The last time, in my memory, a real whale threw itself on a sandbank in the Zubovka area in 1993. I saw this whale east of Kildin Island when I was going on the Kanin to Gremikha, and even approached it at a very close distance to film it floating up and fantanizing on a video camera.
For fish in the 80s and 90s, you didn't have to go far. I caught her in the Ship Brook, and in Poltyna, and in Ein with their crystal and cold waters. The fish could be seen directly from the shore. If tropical islands are called coconut or banana-lemon paradise, Rybachy is undoubtedly a cloudberry-blueberry-mushroom paradise. To pick mushrooms for frying or berries for jam, we did not need to move further than 200-250 meters from the pier where the ship was moored - there were a great many mushrooms and berries. And if Viktor Viktorovich gave me a car, then there were so many mushrooms that you simply couldn't carry them away. They paid attention to russules only at the very beginning of the mushroom season, until the brown birch trees came, but they also ceased to be of interest when they crawled out into the light of day and immediately in such a quantity that "even with their oblique mow", strong red-boletus boletus.
I knew places where porcini mushrooms grew in abundance, but, of course, I tried not to give them out to anyone. Who knows northern ginseng? Along the valleys of streams, among stones, sometimes right on the sheer cliffs, our northern "ginseng" grows - pink radiola, or, in a simple way - "golden root". I had to meet with him more than once - it was about a quarter of an hour of a leisurely journey from the pier to my nearest plantations. At the golden root, rhizomes and roots are used for medicinal purposes, harvested in the second half of July and the first half of August, only from large specimens with at least 2 stems. The rhizomes and roots of the plant contain tyrosol, radioloside glycoside, essential oils, tannins, anthraglycosides, malic, gallic, citric, succinic, oxalic acids, lactones, sterols, flavonols (hyperazide, quercetin, isoquercetin, kaempferol), and sugars (mainly sucrose), lipids.
Pharmacological studies have established that the extract from rhizomes in 40% alcohol has not only a stimulating and adaptogenic effect, similar to the preparations of ginseng and eleutherococcus, but also increases blood pressure.
Autumn on Rybachye comes quickly, hastily, not fussing, but businesslike. The tundra becomes kind of dark and unfriendly, as it was in the summer, and did not have time to look back, and the sun is almost gone. Darkness falls quickly. It is clear that there will be no return: it is said, and basta is serious. She will not, as in St. Petersburg, rush back and forth, but will do her autumn job and immediately transfer her affairs to winter. Gloomy and unfriendly, it reminds of seriousness with its winds, unleashing its might on Rybachiy. In 1968 I saw when a hurricane demolished and destroyed half of the buildings along the shore of the Ozerko Bay.
All seasons in the North are fairly well defined. They do not rush and do not jump from one to another. Winter immediately grabs with a stranglehold and will not let go to the end. Here winter does not rush anywhere. Declared and immediately get it. Severe frosts, dense and some kind of solid blizzards immediately show who is the boss here. If not in the spirit, he can spin his devilish dance so that you involuntarily start to respect.
The forest on Rybachye and Sredny - alder and birch - grows only along the stream valleys, where the winds are not so strong, but even here they make the trees bend bizarrely. In August the slopes are covered with lilac-purple willow tea. Autumn begins in September, the tundra becomes burgundy red, lingonberry ripens, replacing blueberries and blueberries, cloudberries leave even earlier, in mid-August. In October, the lingonberry will go under the snow, so that the partridges have something to profit from in the spring - almighty Nature has thought of everything on this score.
Ein's lip is a kind of oasis on Rybachye. In contrast to the central and northern regions of the peninsula, there is even lush grass, where cattle used to be grazed before. Guba is surrounded by high hills with steep rocks, which are worth standing here overnight. During the war, the lip was the main source of supply for the garrison on Rybachye - for this, a pier was built, the remains of which can still be seen. Another attraction of the bay is the sunken research vessel "Perseus". A two-masted steam-sailing schooner with ice contours was built in Onega in 1918 as a hunting hunting ship, but in 1922 in Arkhangelsk the unfinished ship was modernized and became a research vessel. For its intended purpose, the vessel operated in the seas of the Arctic Ocean from 1923 to 1941. It was a real floating marine scientific institute. I even managed to find some technical data of the ship: displacement - 550 tons, length - 41.5 meters, width - 8 meters, draft - 3.2 meters. There were 7 laboratories on this ship, including 1 meteorological one. It was on this vessel that echo sounders were first used to detect schools of fish (1939)! Since the beginning of the war (since 1941), "Perseus" was handed over to the military, and in the same year it was sunk by German aircraft. So the ship and the scientific laboratory became the basis for the above-mentioned pier. At low tide, his remains are still visible ...
"Bolshoye Ozerko" - ... arose as a colony in 1860 on the southwestern coast of Rybachy ... In 1920 it was the center of the Novoozerkovskaya volost. The population in 1926 was 247 people, in 1938 -127 people. In 1930, the collective farm "Pogranichny Rybak" was organized ... In 1960, the village of Ozerko was designated by a row of prefabricated panel houses, popularly called "Finnish" ... Over the years of existence, the anti-aircraft missile systems located on Srednee and Rybachye became obsolete morally and tactically. In the late eighties - early nineties, they began to be reduced ... In the fall of 1994, the last group of soldiers and officers left the village of Ozerko. A period of pogroms began on everything that had been created with such difficulty over the years. At this time, the worst features of our national character appeared - to take everything that lies badly, to beat what cannot be carried away.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, we got a dubious legacy: scattered here and there missile complex silos, barracks, submarine bases. The construction of these sensitive facilities cost the state many billions, and now they are being destroyed under the prickly winds of the Arctic. It hurts that the incredibly complex, expensive mechanisms, which could still be restored, were completely abandoned, as if this was a shed that no one needed. And I myself took part in the construction of many military facilities on Rybachye in Soviet times, transporting thousands of tons of building materials on board Hakob Hakobyan, as well as on other cargo and passenger ships of the shipping company. Therefore, it was doubly painful for me to look at what happened to the peninsula after 1995.
I want to walk around Rybachy in 2007, when I was there for the last time, having driven more than a hundred kilometers on an ATV, through my once native places.
The abandoned buildings of the Sredny and Rybachy peninsulas allow one to study the history of the rise and fall of the Soviet Union, the history of unfulfilled hopes and unrealized plans. An abandoned village is like a lonely sick person: he seems to live, but there is no joy. We have always been extravagant. It is especially acutely felt here, on the Rybachiy and Sredny peninsulas, on our strategic maritime border. This is a frozen museum of the Soviet era. Abandoned garrisons and defenses are like scars on the body of the tundra. Alien. There are many of them, but each of them is lonely in its own way and each has its own story of escape.
Garrisons, which, at first glance, have everything you need for life - high-rise buildings, clubs, gyms, but not a single living soul. Ghost villages, lost on the map, orphaned overnight, which are only rarely visited by lonely travelers. Moreover, there are monuments - with the drooping head of the Rybachi heroes. They are shadows of the past, warlike, saturated with glory that no one needs. Nothing to say. Now the village looks like an abandoned battlefield. And it will collapse and deteriorate as long as there is at least one more gram of metal that can be handed over, or one more brick that you can take with you. The process of plundering is set on a grand scale ... But, even if there were no plunders, I do not believe that life could ever return to these houses. Our reality is that even a good house that loses one owner does not always find a new one. This is especially true of buildings owned by the armed forces.
Rybachiy is very favorably located, alas, not only from the point of view of fishing: the peninsula overlooking Norway is an excellent springboard for our troops. It is unlikely that in the near future he, or at least part of him, will become civilian.
Villages on the Rybachy Peninsula, almost all destroyed. Several metalworkers now live in Bolshoy Ozerko, collecting the remains of metal. It's beautiful and eerie there, like a cemetery.
Here I started my last trip to Rybachy in the summer of 2007 on an ATV, having reached the geologists' camp and back. Practically, starting from the village. Bolshoye Ozerko, there is a road built during the Second World War, and it is radically different from all the other "roads" on the peninsula. Compared to them, this is a full-fledged dirt highway; it is through it that cars get to the peninsula (well, of course, only those that could drive through the pass)!
The village of Zemlyanoye (Pummanki), located in the very center of the Middle, was generally surrounded by something that vaguely resembled a real forest. Somewhere I heard that Zemlyanoye is still a residential village ... but as soon as I entered the outskirts, there was no doubt: there was no one there for a long time. Abandoned houses, equipment left right in the middle of the road ... If I didn’t know the history of these places, I would assume that about 15-20 years ago a war started here and the inhabitants fled, leaving everything they had. But the reality is more sad - such a well-located village with capital buildings was simply abandoned due to the redeployment of military units. But here I have visited my friends of border guards so many times. Here we bathed in a beautiful sauna, fished, hunted, picked mushrooms and berries. There was an excellent shooting range, where I fired at almost all types of weapons, from TTs to machine guns and grenade launchers. On the Vykat brook, I set nets and fished for salmon. Naturally, now the bridge across the Vykat was destroyed, but a quite acceptable ford had already been “trodden down” by the cars nearby and I was able to drive on ...
After a few hours of travel, I reached the former camp of geologists, turned back to Sredny, to return to Ozerko again.
But for now, I am driving from Cape Zemlyanoy along the western coast along a long 30-meter cliff, made of the finest shale plates, through which many small springs break through. The famous "Two Brothers". There is some kind of mysticism here - it is not without reason that the Sami have since ancient times considered the Pummanki mountain to be the habitat of sorcerers (noids). According to legend, two of them - brothers Noyd-Ukko and Noyd-Akka - were punished for their atrocities and turned into these stone sculptures. Beautiful places! The declaration of the Rybachy peninsula as a national park with the obligatory transfer of it from the Ministry of Defense, as a mismanaged and inept owner, to the relevant structures involved in the preservation of natural and other heritage, could contribute to the development of tourism on the Barents Sea coast, which in turn would have a positive effect on the preservation and objects of military heritage. Tourists still visit these places with pleasure, but only in a wild way.
Traces of the presence of hydrocarbons, characteristic of gas and oil fields, were discovered on the Srednee several decades ago. In the 70s, the Ministry of Geology of the USSR recommended starting drilling there, but not even sufficient geophysical research was carried out on the peninsula.
In 1994, the regional administration registered, with the support of several oil companies, the Severshelf company, which conducted seismic surveys on Rybachye. They gave encouraging results for oilmen. Apparently, the oil field stretches from the peninsula to the sea - to the Rybachinskoye oil field. According to experts, in principle, subject to all standards, drilling and oil production on land is an order of magnitude safer than offshore drilling.
In 2002, one of the co-owners of the Murmansk Shipping Company Nikolai Kulikov, the former CEO of Lukoil-Arctic-Tanker, founded a new company, Murmanskneftegaz, which received a license to operate on the peninsula a year later. The company was even registered and located in a building owned by the shipping company. Having issued only a license (MUR series number 11451 NP) in March 2003 for the start of activities and organization of work on the profile in the autumn of the same year, Murmanskneftegaz began prospecting work on the Sredny peninsula, in fact, on the isthmus between Sredny and Rybachy. Equipment began to be brought to the peninsula - a disassembled oil rig, tractors and other equipment. At the same time, the project for the work and the necessary documents determined by the terms of the license for geological exploration drilling was not developed. The administration of the Pechenga district of the Murmansk region was not informed about the timing of the start of work, which did not prevent the death of a part of the tundra and a conflict situation in this regard. The opinions of local reindeer herders were not taken into account either.
And all this - despite the fact that, for example, the following clause was added to the terms of the license: “3.1.4. To start field geophysical work and well construction only after the development of ... projects of the corresponding types of work. Organize and carry out the procedure for assessing the impact of the proposed activity on the environment (EIA). Include the EIA materials in the composition of the object of the state ecological expertise. “Apparently, the heads of the limited liability company did not even look into the document,” says Sergei Zhavoronkin, head of the environmental organization Bellona-Murmansk.
As it turned out, the land on which Murmanskneftegaz began to develop a vigorous activity, since 1991, has been leased by the Rangifer reindeer breeding farm, which has more than 500 reindeer. Having learned about the expansion of oil workers, the reindeer herders turned to the regional land committee. “The reindeer herders could not have done otherwise, since they, the tenants, are primarily responsible for the outrages on the territory they lease,” says Sergey Zhavoronkin. In December 2003, the land committee of the Murmansk region established that the oil workers had seized the land plot illegally, and fined Murmanskneftegaz with the obligation to eliminate the deficiencies discovered within three months. In addition, as the inspectors of the regional department of natural resources established, as a result of the activities of Murmanskneftegaz on the peninsula, about 4 hectares of soil cover with lichen, which is the main food of reindeer, was destroyed. The Department of Natural Resources issued an order to suspend the preparatory work and provide the department with all the necessary documents.
However, the work, as I know, is being carried out on the Sredny, to this day. The new capitalists have no guns and tanks, and those that exist have not fired for a long time.
I still have a map of the places where, over the years of visiting Rybachy, I have walked and surveyed almost every square, every stream, every swamp with berries and every lake with fish. All these are native places. All this is the heroic Rybachy. All this is our common memory - for those who want to remember and to whom all this is dear. I hope Rybachy will someday be reborn. But that will be later.
Where is it happy today? Maybe this "happy today" was seen by the last Rybachy commander - Viktor Viktorovich Kudel? Or thousands of other Rybachin residents? Why did millions of our fathers and grandfathers die in 1941-1945? To be victors or, in the end, defeated? There is no definite answer to these questions. But still! Glory to the heroes of the Rybachiy Peninsula! And eternal memory to them!
I returned to Ozerko, having driven more than a hundred kilometers with bitterness in my soul ...
Several years ago, when I just bought myself a jeep, I had a dream to go to the Rybachiy Peninsula. Several times, for various reasons, I had to postpone my dream until the next year, and the very fact of driving my car across the Rybachiy Peninsula began to seem to me something akin to deprivation of virginity, like a jepper, and then all the roads are open. And finally this year the car was ready to go, and we are overwhelmed with determination. And, the dream has come true!
From the forest near Karshevo at 5 am we started on a long and difficult haul to Murmansk. Almost 700 km from Pudozh walked in the pouring rain. The Murmansk track is almost perfect, apart from a few sections being renovated. By 23 o'clock we finally arrived in Murmansk and stayed at 69 Parallel Hotel, which, as it turned out, is very popular among all-wheel drive travelers. Everyone we met stayed in it. And near the hotel itself, dirty monstrous jeeps have already become commonplace.
Having exhausted themselves, the sutras started to repair cars. First, they returned the stabilizer on the Lekhin P3 to its place, and then went to Svyat, where they sawed down the cut bolt and returned the stabilizer bracket to its place. Holy, thank you again so much for your help. They also found a torn off rear axle breather and torn wires from the rear axle lock sensor. Well, we hope that I won't need it on Rybach.
After completing all the repair activities and purchasing food, we return to the Kola trails and finally cheerfully drive towards Rybachy in the evening.
1. Soaked the wheels in the salty waters of the Arctic Ocean.
2. I crossed the Arctic Circle for the fourth time, and the first time by car. And every time this moment is accompanied by some incomprehensible feeling of euphoria.
3. After passing the border control, we immediately turn to the right onto the road along Titovka and drive into the large waterfall Melnichny
6. If I'm not confusing anything, there was once a small hydroelectric power station on the waterfall supplying electricity to the now lifeless village of Bolshaya Titovka. According to updated information, this is a German hydroelectric power station since the Second World War.
7. Now it is natural devastation
8. Second stage
9. Titovka river valley behind the waterfall
10. In an hour, or maybe more, we reach the Sredny peninsula, already in deep twilight. And here is such a surprise. Catch the warrior, find out about the shooting and where to get up for the night. There is no information yet, but the shooting will be in the area of \u200b\u200bthe road to the Two brothers. We get upset, we camp near Lake Yauhonokanyarvi, where we met the guys on Dzhimnik, with a three-month-old baby. We get to know each other for a bottle of whiskey and go to bed at dawn. If you come across a report, hello guys.
11. Sutra we come again to the soldiers, they say that there will be no shooting for the next two days. We tear up joyfully along the western part of the Middle.
12. Small waterfall
13. And here, judging by everyone, is one of the shooting zones. Everything around the road is lined with wooden hedgehogs and barbed wire.
14. This is a great road!
15. Finally we got to the Ponochevny battery
17. Some mechanisms, oddly enough, work. One tower very much turned out to rotate in a circle
18. But most of the levers were torn off, and they tried, no less, to saw off the barrel of one of the guns
19. We descend back to the coast and head for the Two brothers
20. And here they are
21. Sawed down an onion with Two brothers and two machines, we were here-)
22. We get to the Rybachy peninsula and the first thing we meet is a burnt-out six with a bunch of burnt-out supplies in the cabin and trunk
23. Twilight begins. We are looking for a place to spend the night. We call on the former air defense positions located at the top. The western part of the peninsula at a glance. Having looked around the area with a keen eye, we find a good place, protected from the wind by bushes and a promising view.
24. Angry mushrooms
25. Lech, impatient before dinner and port wine, bent the key for 36
26. Parked in position
27. Having broken in azimuth through the bushes and breaking through the old trench, we went to a gorgeous place overlooking the ocean. Dense vegetation up to the hub. Vnatyag rides almost like on sand. We lay out and celebrate our arrival at Rybachy with Portuguese port and a cigar in the rays of a gorgeous sunset.
28. Sutras were awakened by the downpour. We quickly turned camp and, postponing breakfast for later, moved to Cape Nemetsky. All that is left of the radar Lena
29. The personification of the beauty of the peninsula
30. Balls. You can't go there.
31. We quickly reached the lighthouse. An ominous brick with a barrier and a hanging bicycle hint that the passage is closed further.
32. I climb onto the roof of the neighboring ruins and quickly find where I can move out.
33. And here we are at the northernmost point of the European part of Russia. Euphoria!
34. Stones, algae, zaaapah. Jellyfish swim around and shimmer with electric light like neon.
37. Near the old trenches.
38. The landscapes are fantastic. Photography cannot convey this. Well, or my skill is not enough to convey this beauty.
39. The wind there is just hellish. But it is convenient to dry the tents.
40. Tent - kite
41. We pass by Vaydai-Guba and are amazed at how you can screw up everything.
42. Vaydai-Guba
43. From time to time there are such stones with numbers.
44. We get to the dead village Skobeevsky
45. Desolation
47. And the child likes
48. We leave back to the path and go towards Zubovka
49. On the way we stop at a picturesque waterfall
51. Bath with crystal clear water, where you just want to plunge. But the water there is unrealistically icy.
52. We collect a few bottles with us.
54. Drive through mountain rivers
55. And again views
56. Red fields of berries
57. I am able to move a little faster. As the turmeric ends and we go out on a more or less decent road by local standards, I stop to wait for Lech.
58. And then happiness comes. Sandy, absolutely flat road, after turmeric. We come off in full.
59. They called this hill a sandy volcano.
60. Ahead is the beach, which lacks only palm trees.
61. The road becomes trial again.
62. A little more trial and we get out to this very beach.
63. Again we come off, accelerating our cars.
64. And fooling around twisting dimes.
65. Lyokha tries to swim, but it didn't work out very well \u003d) I ran forward for a long time, but everything was shallow. It quickly became very cold and ran back to the car \u003d)
66. Now you need to try to get to Murmansk. While we are waiting for Lehi to refuel, we spot reindeer. So that's what they are.
67. And here the hippopotamus arrived in time, flopping into a puddle.
But the hope of getting to Murmansk was melting before our eyes. The road didn't get any better. Already in the dark we get to Sredny and drown on a grader in the eastern part of the peninsula. Unable to withstand vibrations, my muffler falls off. We get up for the night again on Lake Jauhonokanyarvi.
69. Sutra moved to Murmansk, where they again stayed at a hotel. There was no strength to move somewhere further. I love these landscapes.
70. Already at the approaches to the asphalt we notice how the Lehin bumper continues to suffer.
71. Sutra we set out again on a long haul to Medvezhyegorsk. On the Murmansk track, by the way, there are a lot of pockets with overpasses. We are trying to do something with the muffler, as our ears are already starting to paw. But everything is useless, only welding and new pipes will help. We postpone this matter until Moscow and continue to torture our ears and frighten passers-by in the villages.
In mid-July, out of business, my colleagues and I found ourselves on a two-week business trip to Murmansk. Since they arrived in Murmansk in my car, they tried to spend their free time actively: we saw the city, repeatedly fished in the Kola Bay, twice went to Teriberka, and I also managed to visit the Rybachy Peninsula ...
One weekend I was lying on the couch of a rented apartment and decided to read information about the Rybachy Peninsula and reviews of automobile travelers on my smartphone. The more I read, the more I got the idea of \u200b\u200bgoing there. Considering the bad roads and the lack of preparation for the trip, I planned to get only to the Musta-Tunturi pass, walk there along the rocks, to the places of battles and return back. It took no more than half an hour to get ready, in fact there were no fees, I just drank coffee, smoked a cigarette and drove off. I planned to refuel on the way, go to the store for some food and water, but somehow I slipped through all the stores and, having refueled, went with a bottle of about 50 ml of water in the back seat. This attitude towards food was a big mistake, I realized that quickly. All two weeks of our business trip there was a heat of about 30C, which, coupled with high humidity, created a terrible stuffiness. Day trip was no exception and I wanted to drink already 50 kilometers from Murmansk.
The route from Murmansk to the Titovka checkpoint is excellent, everyone checks the documents at the checkpoint. As I understand it, the main requirement for free travel is the citizenship of the Russian Federation. After the checkpoint, turn right onto the dirt road, in fact, from this moment the adventure begins. The road along the Titovka River is all in pits and bumps, like the rest of the way, there is probably no point in describing the quality of the “coverage”, because there is no such coverage, there are a lot of reviews on the Internet, I will only say that it is quite possible to drive if carefully.
The road along the river is replete with scenic views and I have repeatedly stopped to admire and take a picture. Unfortunately, the photo does not convey the height.
After some time, the road goes to the left of the river and, meandering, rises higher and higher to the pass. Not the Caucasus, of course, but the rocky northern hills have their own, special beauty, it's not just that people who have visited these places once come here again and again.
While driving along Titovka, I was very thirsty, there was a feeling that the palate was stuck together and cracked, I definitely decided that I would reach the pass and turn back. At some point, when I was bypassing another hole, it seemed to me that a bottle was lying in the road dust, I drove it, looked in the mirror - it seemed like a bottle really. He stopped, approached and was stunned, in the road dust lay a one and a half liter sealed bottle of Holy Spring water. At that moment, it was a sign for me, a sign that I had to go further, beyond the pass. And indeed, it was worth getting drunk as the mood immediately lifted and the strength and desire to go further appeared. After that I quickly reached the Musta-Tunturi pass.
Unfortunately, I was not prepared for this trip and did not have a plan, any points of interest, therefore, stopping at the pass, I just walked along the surrounding rocks. Climbed to the top in search of traces of war. Found.
Echo of war After the pass the road began to descend, also replete with views worthy of the artist's brush. I have repeatedly stopped and admired. Thus I got to the Sredny peninsula. I did not like the way through the Sredny peninsula: a dead road, shaking the car from side to side of the pit, speed 10 km / h, monotonous landscape on the left and Bolshaya Motka lip on the right. From time to time on the coast of the bay there were camps of visiting fishermen and tourists. Sights of the Middle - monuments to the Soviet soldiers who fell in battle. In my opinion, you have to go to the Srednyaya in order to touch the history of the Great Patriotic War, not passing through like me, but thoughtfully, knowing specific points. It was in these places and about the events that took place in these places that Konstantin Simonov wrote the poem "The Son of an Artilleryman".
Reminded by "Son of an artilleryman" K. Simonov 
The Middle Peninsula is a war The middle one I drove along the eastern bank and got to the isthmus with Rybachy. I set the task for myself to get to Cape Nemetsky, to the northernmost point of the peninsula, which is also the northernmost point of the European part of continental Russia. In one of the reviews I read that it is better to get there along the western coast of Rybachy, and I did just that. Having passed the isthmus, I immediately turned left onto the road leading to Cape Nemetsky, leaving the abandoned village of Bolshoye Ozerko on the right. The Rybachiy Peninsula is no longer as monotonous as the Sredniy Peninsula, at least so it seemed to me. I drove towards the sun, sometimes it made it difficult to go around stones and pits, but the views were simply fantastic.
The road on the western side of Rybachye is better than on the eastern side of the Srednee, the speed is also 10-15 km / h, but somehow more varied than chtoli. The car chatters less from side to side, but there are a lot of large stones and fords. If you take your time, then completely passing through almost any car.
Perhaps, the beach left the strongest impression on me, not reaching about one kilometer to the Worm Creek. Dark gray sand, as transparent as an angel's tear, sea water in the rays of the setting sun, calm and warm evening ... I didn't swim right away, I decided to cheer up on the way back, but, looking ahead, I will say that I did not succeed, since the ebb had pushed back by that time water about 150 meters and the view of the beach was no longer so fabulous. The photo cannot convey, it must be seen personally, it's worth it!
It was only a stone's throw from this place to Cape German. Having strayed a little along the roads of the tundra in unsuccessful attempts to bypass the military unit standing in the way, I reached my destination.
Below is a short video sketch, which I blinded from videos shot on a mobile phone. I shot with one hand, the other held the steering wheel, respectively, the areas that had to be overcome while holding the steering wheel with both hands were left behind the scenes.
At the final point, I stayed no more than an hour, walked, admired the sea and drove back. The return trip followed the same route. Left the house at about 14-30, came back about 9-30.
While driving along Rybachy, I met a car of French travelers. I didn't notice the people nearby, so I just drove by. Having already returned to St. Petersburg, I went to the site indicated on the board of their car and read information about them, about the car and their travels. Read it, it is interesting to look at our country through the eyes of foreigners who have seen it not only at football stadiums and bars in big cities.
P.S. I consider it my duty to ask you, friends, do not litter, please. The tundra will not take anything, everything that you left will lie for decades, if not centuries. The soil layer is very small, do not tear it with tire treads, it will heal for a very long time, there are roads.
P.P.S. A week ago I was sure that I no longer traveled by car to Rybachy, but now I already have thoughts about proper preparation and how to plan the route. I will go, I will definitely go, but not in a hurry, with fishing and spending the night in a tent ...
