Peninsula fishing dimensions. Complete devastation and stunning beauty: how we went on SUVs to the Rybachy Peninsula. Natural attractions of the peninsulas

The Rybachy Peninsula, which is located in the Murmansk region, is a very interesting place. The Rybachy Peninsula will certainly appeal to those who love travel, nature trips and sea fishing. Photos from trips and trips to this unique place can be found on the Internet, as well as in travel magazines. There you can also find reviews from experienced tourists who love outdoor activities and interesting photos amateur fishermen.

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You can get to the Rybachy Peninsula from Murmansk. The main thing is to think through the trip route in advance, because due to the difficult weather conditions the trip to Rybachy may be disrupted. To get to the Rybachy Peninsula from Murmansk, you must have a map with you. The Rybachy Peninsula in the Murmansk region is one of the most interesting places on the map of northern Russia.

Travel to the Rybachy Peninsula in the Murmansk region: why it’s worth going there

To those who love leisure in nature, it is not at all necessary to leave Russia for this. In our country there are also very interesting routes. In northern Russia, above the Arctic Circle, is the city of Murmansk. This is one of the northernmost cities in Russia. From Murmansk you can easily get to the Rybachy Peninsula.

There are several reasons why you should definitely visit Rybachy. These are the following reasons:

Those who are interested in national history and the military glory of Russia will certainly want to return to Rybachy again and again. Here you can still find shells and other artifacts that survived from the Great Patriotic War. The heroic past of the Rybachy Peninsula is even sung in the famous Soviet song dedicated to farewell to the Rocky Mountains. There are industrial enterprises, fisheries and reindeer farms there.

Murmansk region Rybachy Peninsula: fishing for active recreation lovers

This place has a “telling name”: Rybachy. It is no coincidence that local residents dubbed This peninsula is just like that. The Rybachy Peninsula provides everyone with a unique opportunity to have a great time on real sea fishing. You can fish with either a fishing rod or a more modern spinning rod equipped with a variety of additional accessories. They usually go to sea by boat or motorboat. You can go sea fishing in the following ways:

While fishing you can easily catch the most varied sea ​​fish , which a resident of the Russian middle zone usually sees only in stores. It is good to catch both large cod and small capelin here. If you are very lucky, you can see real fur seals basking on the seashore.

On the peninsula there are a large number of private fisheries and tourist centers designed for fishing enthusiasts. At the camp site you can rent transport and fishing equipment. Those who are afraid to go out into the open sea for the first time without an accompanying person can take with them a competent instructor - an experienced fisherman who will help organize fishing correctly and get a good catch.

For fishing, you should choose calm, windless weather. Fishing during a storm is dangerous, therefore, if a tourist plans to go to Rybachy specifically for the purpose of fishing, it is advisable to check the weather in advance.

While fishing you can do unique photos. The northern sea waters are rich in fish, so even a novice amateur fisherman will not be left without a solid catch. Everything you need for fishing (bait, clothes, accessories) can be purchased at local fishing stores. The best time for fishing is the short northern summer. From time immemorial, local residents have been engaged in fishing, hence the “speaking” name of the peninsula. You won't catch fish like this anywhere else. Sea fishing in one of the coldest and northernmost places in our country is an activity for real men and passionate lovers fishing.

Rybachy is located in northern Russia, so the climate there is very specific. So, when going on a trip, you must definitely take warm clothes with you: a jacket, boots, a warm hat, waterproof clothes for sea fishing.

The Rybachy Peninsula is rich in mushrooms and berries. Passionate mushroom pickers should be aware that blood-sucking insects are rampant in local forests during mushroom season, so you should definitely take protective equipment with you - insecticides and repellents. Those who go into the forest for a “silent hunt” should wear long sleeves so that their arms and legs are reliably protected from bites.

Those, who goes to Rybachy in the summer, in the midst of local tourist season, must make reservations in advance at a hotel or camp site, otherwise free seats it may simply not be there.

On your trip, be sure to take a camera and video camera with you. There are big problems with cellular communications on the peninsula. In order to talk on the phone with family or friends, you have to specifically look for a place where there is mobile coverage.

On the peninsula there are several nature reserves And national parks. While staying in these places, you must strictly adhere to the rules of conduct that are mandatory for all visitors. : do not make fires, do not leave garbage behind, do not pick flowers or break tree branches. In case of violations generally accepted rules the violator risks paying a substantial fine.

There are places on the peninsula where all hunting and fishing are completely prohibited. Therefore, before planning these activities, it is necessary to check with local residents, whether the chosen place is forbidden.

Those, who loves animals and is interested in agriculture , can visit numerous reindeer herding farms scattered in abundance throughout the peninsula.

The Rybachy Peninsula is a unique place in northern Russia. At this place ancient history and a heroic military background. Those who have visited the Rybachy Peninsula at least once usually return there several times. The majestic northern nature makes people's hearts skip a beat with admiration. However, it is not recommended to travel to Rybachy with small children, because the weather on Rybachy is very harsh. – ideal for those interested in nature native land and loves extreme tourism










. A holiday here is inexpensive, but will be remembered for a long time.

I have been connected with the Rybachy Peninsula for almost most of my life. I first came to Rybachy in July 1966 on the ship “Ilya Repin”, when I arrived in Murmansk as a cadet at the LMU for a year-long internship. Later, I went to the Rybachy Peninsula already in navigator and captain positions on the passenger ships of the MMP: mph "Ilya Repin", mph "Petrodvorets", mph "Akop Akopyan", mph "Vologda", mph "Klavdiya Elanskaya", mph "Kanin" and tx "Polaris". My last visit to Rybachy was on the Polaris ship in the summer of 2007, when Rybachy was being developed by specialists from the Murmansk Shipping Company, who were looking for oil on the peninsula. I then told N.V. Kulikov that he would not produce oil in these places. And so it happened...

I have the best memories of this land, sacred to all Murmansk residents. Many of my years were devoted to the peninsula, when the ships of the shipping company were on regular passenger line Murmansk - Ozerko, providing residents living throughout the peninsula with everything they need. Communication with the mainland was carried out in those days mainly through passenger ships MMP. Some years I visited Ozerko up to a hundred times a year, walked around and traveled the length and breadth of the peninsula. I have special and best memories for the period 1988-2003, when the brigade in Ozerko was commanded by Colonel Viktor Viktorovich Kudelya, my good comrade and the last commander of the entire peninsula. Despite the fact that a lot has been written in literature about the Rybachy Peninsula and, especially, about its heroic pages during the Great Patriotic War, I want to pay attention to my beloved land in terms of my memories. I also want to make a short historical excursion into the past of the Rybachy Peninsula.

Rybachy Peninsula (Sami. Giehkirnjrga, Finnish Kalastajasaarento, Norwegian Fiskerhalvya) - a peninsula in the north Kola Peninsula. Administratively, Rybachy is part of the Pechenga district of the Murmansk region. Washed Barents Sea and Motovsky Bay. It is a plateau that drops steeply to the sea. The plateau is composed of clayey shales, sandstones and limestones. Height up to 300 m. Tundra vegetation. Along the coast of the peninsula, thanks to the warm North Cape Current, the sea does not freeze all year round. Coastal waters are rich in fish (herring, cod, capelin, etc.). To the south of the peninsula is the Sredny Peninsula. From the north, a relatively large bay, Zubovskaya Bay, juts out into the peninsula for 3.5 kilometers.

Since ancient times, Pomors have been fishing in the coastal waters of Rybachy. In the 17th century there were 16 fishing camps with 109 fishing huts. Since the 16th century the name has already been mentioned Fisherman's Peninsula. The Dutch traveler Guyen van Linschoten, a member of the 1594 expedition, mentions that he saw "the land of Kegot, called the Fisherman's Peninsula." Stephen Barrow (English) June 23, 1576, after traveling to northern shores 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 trade, through which the Russian state traded with Europe. In 1826, when drawing the border between the Russian Empire and Norway, 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 Finnish 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 took place between Soviet and German troops on the peninsula and coastal waters. In Murmansk, a street was named in honor of 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 military garrisons here are completely closed. More recently, the territory of the Rybachy Peninsula was finally open to the public. And immediately dozens of jeeps, all-terrain vehicles and hundreds of northern extreme sports enthusiasts poured here...

The Rybachy Peninsula is truly the end of the earth. The northernmost point of the European part of Russia is located here. You feel this especially acutely when standing on a rocky cliff, at the edge of the ocean, squinting from the strong north wind. Behind – “space balls” radar station and the pointing finger of a lighthouse, and in front, as far as the eye can see, is a body of water. Naturally, Rybachy is a closed area. But it was possible to get here absolutely legally by requesting appropriate permission from the border guards in advance. The only people who are still barred from entering here are foreigners. Previously, this small bare piece of land, surrounded on all sides by water, was literally filled with military units. Norway, a NATO member, is just a stone's throw away, and all the waterways are within our reach. northern ports are passing by. Now everything has changed.

The troops were withdrawn, the remaining small units look frightening: gloomy, shabby barracks, the remains of equipment scattered everywhere, dirty conscripts looking wolfishly from under their brows. I don’t want to look at all this at all.

From Murmansk to Rybachy, if you travel by car, it’s only a few hours’ journey. But this path is extremely interesting. The landscape changes literally every ten kilometers. Still dense forests give way to open forests, they are replaced by “northern dwarfs”, and even further north they disappear from view. Sparse shrubs can only be found in the lowlands between the rocks, and mosses, lichens and some strangely established herbs dominate everywhere, which still manage to bloom here. 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 topography. In the valleys, if you can call them that, there are a great many clear lakes, swamps, streams and rivulets. Following the usual clichés, I would like to call all this a cosmic landscape, but in reality, of course, the landscape is the most earthly, it’s just difficult to find the appropriate epithets to describe it. It is much easier to talk 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 fascinating 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” name Tsyp-Navolok. Here is what is written about the former population of Rybachy in the “Guide to the North of Russia” (St. Petersburg, 1898. P. 78):
- “On the eastern shore of the Rybachy Peninsula, near Tsip Navolok, there is Korabelnaya Bay, which for a long time was enlivened by the activity of the trading post founded here by the St. Petersburg merchant Pallizen, which then passed to the merchant Zebek and from him to the company “Rybak”. The ship’s 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 the use of hellebores to preserve the bait.” I borrowed this quote from the book of my friend, a great expert on the Kola land, the Murmansk writer Mikhail. Oreshets "Orphaned Shores", published online on his own website. The photograph posted there shows Mikhail Oresheta with a beard and a megaphone in his hands, together with an unnamed border guard, as well as our former enemy, and now a German friend, Gerhard Dag, and the leader of the North Sea schoolchildren, Galina Penkova. Misha is a local historian and historian who dedicated his life to our northern region.

Walking on the tundra is a pleasure - everything is visible for many kilometers ahead and at almost every step you come across something unusual and different, either an exotic animal or an unexploded mine that has lain since the war. A mottled partridge hen literally jumps out from under your feet and, diligently pretending that her health is not all right, begins to lead you away from her brood. I, usually, pretending to believe it, follow her, keeping her distance, not moving away, but not letting her get close either. Then I turn around and see how she, having made sure that I am at a safe distance for her family, squeaking loudly, hurries back to the children with both her paws.

Fish, of course, is also found here - where would the name come from then - Fisherman's Peninsula? And this fish is truly royal: brown trout, trout, delicious salmon.
Throughout Rybachye there are hundreds of streams, rivers and lakes with this beautiful fish. I constantly fished on Rybachy in all seasons and with great success.

And sometime, in the middle XIX century, on Rybachy and the whales they “swinged” not without success. The last time, in my memory, a real whale washed up on a sandbank in the Zubovka area was in 1993. I saw this whale east of the island Kildin, when he was sailing on the Kanin to Gremikha, and even came very close to him in order to film him, popping up and fantasizing, on a video camera.

In the 80s and 90s you didn’t have to go far to get fish. I caught it in the Korabelny stream, and in Poltyna, and in Ein with their crystal and cold waters. The fish could be seen right from the shore. If tropical islands called coconut or banana-lemon paradise, then Rybachy is undoubtedly a cloudberry-blueberry-mushroom paradise. To pick mushrooms for roast or berries for jam, we didn’t have to go further than 200-250 meters from the pier where the ship was moored - there were a great variety of mushrooms and berries. And if Viktor Viktorovich allocated me a car, then there were so many mushrooms that it was simply impossible to carry them on my own. People paid attention to russula only at the very beginning of the mushroom season, until the boletus mushrooms began to appear, but they, too, ceased to be of interest when they crawled into the light of day and immediately in such numbers that “you could even mow them with a scythe,” the strong redhead boletus mushrooms.

I knew places where porcini mushrooms grew in abundance, but, of course, I tried not to give them out to anyone. Who knows about northern ginseng? Along stream valleys, among stones, sometimes right on steep cliffs and our northern “ginseng” grows - radiola rosea, or, in simple terms, “golden root”. I had to meet him more than once - my nearest plantations were about a quarter of an hour's leisurely walk from the pier. For golden root, rhizomes and roots are used for medicinal purposes, harvested in the second half of July-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), sugars (mainly glucose and sucrose), lipids.

Pharmacological studies have established that an extract from rhizomes in 40% alcohol has not only a stimulating and adaptogenic effect, similar to ginseng and eleutherococcus preparations, but also increases blood pressure.

Autumn on Rybachy comes quickly, hastily, without fuss, but in a businesslike manner. The tundra becomes somehow dark and inhospitable, as it was in the summer, and before you have time to look back, the sun is almost gone. Darkness comes quickly. It is clear that there will be no return: it has been said, and that’s it – this is serious. She won’t rush back and forth like in St. Petersburg, but will do her autumn work and immediately hand over the work to winter. Gloomy and unfriendly, it reminds of seriousness with its winds, bringing down its power on Rybachy. In 1968 I saw when a hurricane demolished and destroyed half of the buildings along the shore of Ozerko Bay.

All seasons in the North are quite clearly defined. They don’t rush around or shy away from one thing to another. Winter immediately grabs you with a death grip and won’t let go until the end. Here winter doesn't rush anywhere. Apply and you will receive it immediately. Severe frosts, dense and some kind of hard snowstorms immediately show who is boss here. If you are not in the right spirit, he can spin his devilish dance in such a way that you involuntarily start to respect him.

The forest on Rybachy and Sredny - alder and birch - grows only in the valleys of streams, 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 fireweed. Autumn begins in September, the tundra turns burgundy red, lingonberries ripen, replacing blueberries and blueberries, cloudberries leave even earlier, in mid-August. In October, the lingonberries will go under the snow, so that the partridges will have something to profit from in the spring - almighty Nature has thought out everything about this.

Eina Bay is a kind of oasis on Rybachy. In contrast to the central and northern regions of the peninsula, there is even lush grass here, where cattle were once grazed. Guba is surrounded by high hills with steep cliffs that are worth standing here overnight. During the war, the lip was the main source of supply for the garrison on Rybachy - for this purpose a pier was built, the remains of which are still visible. Another attraction of the bay is the sunken research vessel Perseus. A two-masted sailing-steam schooner with ice contours was built in the city of Onega in 1918 as a commercial hunting ship, but in 1922 in Arkhangelsk the unfinished ship was modernized and became a research vessel. For its intended purpose, the ship 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 ship that echo sounders were first used to detect schools of fish (1939)! From the beginning of the war (since 1941), the Perseus was handed over to the military, and in the same year it was sunk by German aircraft. So the ship and scientific laboratory became the basis for the pier mentioned above. At low tide his remains are still visible...

“Bolshoye Ozerko” - ... arose as a colony in 1860 on the southwestern coast of Rybachye ... In the 1920s it was the center of the Novoozerkovskaya volost. The population in 1926 was 247 people, in 1938 - 127 people. In 1930, the collective farm “Border Fisherman” was organized... In 1960, the village of Ozerko was marked by a row of prefabricated panel houses, popularly called “Finnish”... Over the years of existence, the anti-aircraft missile systems located on Sredny and Rybachye have become morally and tactically obsolete. In the late eighties and early nineties they began to be cut back... In the fall of 1994, the last group of soldiers and officers left the village of Ozerko. The period of pogrom began for everything that had been created with such difficulty over the years. At this time, the worst traits of our national character appeared - to take everything that is bad, to beat what cannot be carried away.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, we inherited a dubious inheritance: missile silos, barracks, and submarine bases scattered here and there. 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’s painful that incredibly complex, expensive mechanisms that could still be restored were completely abandoned, as if it were a barn that no one needed. But I myself took Soviet time participation in the construction of many military facilities on Rybachye, transporting thousands of tons of construction materials on the Hakob Hakobyan mv, as well as on other cargo-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 along Rybachy in 2007, when I was there for the last time, having traveled more than a hundred kilometers on an ATV, through my once native places.

From the abandoned buildings of the Sredny and Rybachy peninsulas, one can 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 be alive, but there is no joy. We have always been extravagant. It is felt especially acutely here, on the Rybachy and Sredny peninsulas, on our strategic maritime border. This is a frozen museum of the Soviet era. Abandoned garrisons and defensive fortifications 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, in which, at first glance, there is everything necessary for life - multi-storey buildings, clubs, gyms, but there is not a single living soul. Ghost villages, lost on the map, orphaned overnight, which are only occasionally visited by lonely travelers. Moreover, there are monuments with the bowed heads of the fishing heroes. They are shadows of the past, warlike, saturated with glory, which has become useless to anyone. Nothing to say. Now the village looks like an abandoned battlefield. And it will collapse and deteriorate until there is at least one more gram of metal left that can be handed over, or one more brick that can be taken with you. The process of theft was carried out on a grand scale... But even if there were no robbers, I do not believe that life could ever return to these houses. Our reality is that even good house A dog that loses one owner does not always find a new one. This is especially true for structures owned by the armed forces.

Rybachy is very advantageously 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 he, or at least part of him, will become civilian in the near future.

The villages on the Rybachy Peninsula, almost all destroyed. Several metalworkers now live in Bolshoye Ozerko and collect the remains of metal. It's beautiful and creepy there, like a cemetery.

Here I began my last journey along Rybachy in the summer of 2007 on an ATV, driving to 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 enter the peninsula (well, of course, only those that were able to drive through the pass)!

The village of Zemlyanoye (Pummanki), located in the very center of Sredny, was generally surrounded by something that vaguely resembled a real forest. I heard somewhere that Zemlyanoye is still a residential village... but as soon as I entered the outskirts, there was no doubt: there had been 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 have assumed that 15-20 years ago a war started here and the residents fled, abandoning everything they had. But the reality is sadder - such a well-located village with permanent buildings was simply abandoned due to the redeployment of military units. But I’ve been here so many times with my border guard friends. Here we washed in a wonderful sauna, fished, hunted, and picked mushrooms and berries. There was an excellent shooting range here, where I fired at almost all types of weapons, from TTs to machine guns and grenade launchers. I set up nets on the Vykat stream and caught salmon. Naturally, now the bridge over Vykat was destroyed, but nearby cars had already “trampled” a completely acceptable ford and I was able to drive on...

After a few hours of travel, I reached former camp geologists, turned back to Sredniy to return to Ozerko again.

But for now I’m driving from Cape Zemlyanoy along the western shore along a long 30-meter cliff made of the thinnest 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 from ancient times considered Mount Pummanki the habitat of sorcerers (noids). According to legend, two of them - the brothers Noid-Ukko and Noid-Akka - were punished for their atrocities and turned into these stone statues. The most beautiful places! Declaring the Rybachy Peninsula a national park with the obligatory transfer of it from the Ministry of Defense, as a mismanaged and inept owner, to the jurisdiction of the relevant structures involved in the preservation of natural and other heritage, could contribute to the development of tourism on the coast of the Barents Sea, which in turn would have a positive effect on the safety and objects of military heritage. Tourists still enjoy visiting these places, but only in a wild way.

Traces of the presence of hydrocarbons, characteristic of gas and oil fields, were discovered in Sredny several decades ago. In the 70s, the USSR Ministry of Geology recommended starting drilling there, but not even sufficient geophysical research was carried out on the peninsula.

In 1994, the regional administration, with the support of several oil companies, registered the Severshelf company, which carried out seismic surveys at Rybachye. They gave encouraging results to oil workers. Apparently, the oil field stretches from the peninsula into the sea - up to oil field Rybachinskoe. As experts note, in principle, if all standards are observed, drilling and oil production on land is an order of magnitude safer than drilling at sea.

In 2002, one of the co-owners of Murmansk sea ​​shipping company Nikolai Kulikov, former CEO"Lukoil-Arctic-Tanker", founded 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 to begin activities and organize work according to the profile in the fall of the same year, Murmanskneftegaz began prospecting work on the Sredny Peninsula, actually on the isthmus between Sredny and Rybachy. Equipment began to be imported to the peninsula - a disassembled drilling rig, tractors and other equipment. At the same time, the work project and Required documents, defined by the terms of the license to conduct geological exploration drilling, has not been 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 destruction of 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 included in the terms of the license: “3.1.4. Start field geophysical work and well construction only after developing... projects for the relevant types of work. Organize and conduct a procedure for assessing the environmental impact of the proposed activity (EIA). Include EIA materials as part of the state environmental impact assessment facility. “Apparently, the managers of the limited liability company did not even look at the document,” comments the head of the environmental organization Bellona-Murmansk, Sergei Zhavoronkin.

As it turned out, the land on which Murmanskneftegaz began to develop vigorous activity has been leased since 1991 from the Rangifer reindeer herding farm, which has more than 500 deer. Having learned about the expansion of the oil industry, 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 rent,” says Sergei Zhavoronkin. In December 2003, the land committee of the Murmansk region established that oil workers had seized land plot illegal, and imposed a fine on Murmanskneftegaz with an obligation to eliminate the detected deficiencies within three months. In addition, as the inspectors of the regional department established natural resources, as a result of the activities of Murmanskneftegaz on the peninsula, about 4 hectares of soil cover with moss, which is the main food of reindeer, were destroyed. The Department of Natural Resources issued an order to suspend preparatory work and provide the department with all the necessary documents.
However, work, as I know, is carried out on the Middle, to this day. There are no guns and tanks for the new capitalists, and those that exist have not fired for a long time.

I still have a map of the places where, over many years of visits to Rybachy, I walked and examined 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 it is all dear. I hope that Rybachy will one day be reborn. But that will happen later.

Where is it happy today? Maybe this “happy today” was seen by the last commander of Rybachy - Viktor Viktorovich Kudel? Or thousands of other Rybachin residents? Why did millions of our fathers and grandfathers die in 1941 - 1945? In order to be winners or, in the end, defeated? There is no clear answer to these questions. But still! Glory to the heroes of the Rybachy Peninsula! And eternal memory to them!

I returned to Ozerko, having traveled more than a hundred kilometers, with bitterness in my soul...

In mid-July, due to business needs, my colleagues and I found ourselves on a two-week business trip to Murmansk. Since we arrived in Murmansk in my car, we tried to spend our free time from work actively: we saw the city, went fishing in the Kola Bay several times, went to Teriberka twice, and I also managed to visit the Rybachy Peninsula...

One weekend I was lying on the couch rented apartment and decided to read information about the Rybachy Peninsula and reviews of car travelers on my smartphone. The more I read, the more excited I became about the idea of ​​going there. Considering the bad roads and lack of preparation for the trip, I planned to only get to the Musta-Tunturi pass, walk there along the rocks, through the battle sites and return back. It took no more than half an hour to get ready; in fact, there was no getting ready, I just drank coffee, smoked a cigarette and went. I planned to refuel along the way, stop at a store for some food and water, but somehow I missed all the stores and, having refueled, drove off with a bottle with about 50 ml of water in the back seat. This attitude towards provisions was a big mistake, I realized it quickly. During the entire two weeks of our business trip, the temperature was about 30C, which, coupled with high humidity, created a terrible stuffiness. The day of the trip was no exception and I already wanted to drink about 50 kilometers from Murmansk.

The route from Murmansk to the Titovka checkpoint is excellent, everyone’s documents at the checkpoint are checked. As I understand it, the main requirement for free travel is citizenship 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 full of potholes and potholes, like the rest of the way. There’s probably no point in describing the quality of the “coverage,” because there is none, there are plenty of reviews on the Internet, I’ll just say that it’s quite possible to drive if you’re careful.


The road along the river is replete with picturesque views and I stopped several times to admire and take photos. Unfortunately, the photo does not convey the height.


After some time the road goes away to the left of the river and, twisting, rises higher and higher to the pass. Not the Caucasus, of course, but the rocky northern hills have their own special beauty, and it’s not for nothing that people who have visited these places once come here again and again.


While driving along Titovka, I was very thirsty, it felt like my palate was stuck together and cracked, I definitely decided that I would reach the pass and turn back. At some point, while driving around another pothole, it seemed to me that there was a bottle lying in the road dust, I drove by, looked in the mirror - it really looked like a bottle. I stopped, walked up 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, as soon as I got drunk, my mood immediately lifted and I had the strength and desire to move on. After that I quickly reached the Musta-Tunturi pass.


Unfortunately, I was not prepared for this trip and did not have a plan or any points of interest, so, stopping at the pass, I simply walked along the surrounding rocks. I climbed the peaks in search of traces of the war. Found.



Echoes of War

Beyond the pass the road began to descend, also replete with views worthy of an artist’s brush. I stopped and admired several times. Thus I reached the Sredny Peninsula. I didn’t like the path through the Sredniy peninsula: a dead road, pits tossing the car from side to side, speed of 10 km/h, monotonous landscape on the left and Bolshaya Motka Bay on the right. From time to time, on the coast of the bay there were camps for visiting fishermen and tourists. Sights of the Middle - monuments to Soviet soldiers who fell in battle. In my opinion, you need to go to Sredniy specifically to touch the history of the Great Patriotic War, not just 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 “Son of an Artilleryman.”


Reminded me of “Son of an Artilleryman” by K. Simonov


The Middle Peninsula is war

I traveled around the middle one east coast and ended up on the isthmus with Rybachy. I set myself the task of getting to Cape Nemetsky, the northernmost point of the peninsula, which is also the northernmost point of the European part of continental Russia. I read in one of the reviews that it’s better to get there by west coast Rybachy, that’s what I did. 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 Rybachy Peninsula is no longer as monotonous as the Middle Peninsula, at least it seemed so to me. I drove towards the sun, sometimes it made it very difficult to drive around stones and holes, but the views were simply fantastic.



The road on the western side of Rybachy is better than on the eastern side of Sredny, the speed is also 10-15 km/h, but somehow it’s more varied. The car shakes less from side to side, but a lot large stones and fords. If you're not in a hurry, you can easily drive almost any car.


Perhaps the strongest impression on me was the beach, about one kilometer before Chervyanyi Ruchey. Dark gray sand, clear 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’ll say that it was not possible, since the tide had pushed back by then the water was about 150 meters away and the view of the beach was no longer so fabulous. Photos can't do it justice, you have to see it in person, it's worth it!


From this place it is just a stone's throw to Cape German. Having wandered a little along the roads of the tundra in unsuccessful attempts to bypass a military unit standing on the way, I reached my destination.


Below is a short video sketch that I made from videos shot on a mobile phone. I was filming with one hand and holding the steering wheel with the other, so the areas that had to be overcome while holding the steering wheel with both hands were left behind the scenes.

I stayed at the end point for no more than an hour, walked around, admired the sea and went back. The return journey followed the same route. I left home at about 2:30 pm and returned back around 9:30 am.

While driving along Rybachy, I met a car of French travelers. I didn’t notice any people nearby, so I just drove past. Having already returned to St. Petersburg, I went to the website indicated on board their car and read information about them, about the car and their travels. Read it, it’s interesting to look at our country through the eyes of foreigners who have seen it not only football stadiums and bars in big cities.


P.S. I consider it my duty to ask you, friends, please don’t litter. The tundra will not take anything; everything you left will lie there for decades, if not centuries. The soil layer is very small, do not tear it with tire treads, it will take a very long time to heal, there are roads there.

P.P.S. Just a week ago I was sure that I would no longer travel by car to Rybachy, but now I’m already thinking about proper preparation and how to plan the route. I will go, I will definitely go again, but not in a hurry, with fishing and spending the night in a tent...

Song of the war years "Farewell" Rocky Mountains“Many people have heard, and some may even remember the words of this song, which mentions the Rybachy Peninsula, disappearing in the distant fog. But at the same time, few people thought: where is this land located? It is located in the very north beyond the Arctic Circle, 150 km from the regional center of Murmansk. And Cape German, located on the peninsula, is the northernmost geographical point of the mainland European territory.

History of the peninsula

In this harsh but beautiful place, located on the shore and Motovsky Bay, people began to settle long ago. The Rybachy Peninsula, according to surviving documents, received its name back in the 16th century. Indeed, in the waters surrounding the peninsula, which do not freeze all year round thanks to the North Cape Current, the Pomors have been fishing (herring, capelin, cod, etc.) since ancient times. The peninsula began to belong to the Russian Empire in 1826, when the state border with Norway was finally established. After the revolution of 1917, the western part of the island went to Finland, which was subsequently annexed to the USSR after

During the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Arctic became the scene of fierce battles between Soviet troops and Wehrmacht troops. The German command attached great importance to the capture of the Kola Peninsula, rich in nickel deposits, and planned to as soon as possible to capture Murmansk, the main base of the Northern Fleet, but these plans were not destined to come true. Standing in the way of the invaders was the Rybachy Peninsula, which was the most important strategic point from which the entrance to the Pechenga, Kola and Motovsky bays was controlled. Rybachy remained an unsinkable battleship for them, playing a decisive role in the defense northern borders our Motherland.

At the end of the war, Soviet military garrisons were located on the Rybachy Peninsula, located almost on the very border with Norway, and entry into its territory was limited. Currently, most garrisons are closed, and almost anyone can get there.

Peninsula today

The Rybachy Peninsula, the map of which is replete with bays and coves, rivers and lakes, has become a place of pilgrimage for ecotourism lovers. Fans of off-road racing and fans of extreme diving come here not only from Russia, but also from other countries.

Also, many representatives of youth patriotic clubs come to the Rybachy Peninsula in the summer season to visit the sites of the bloody battles of World War II and maintain the monuments to fallen soldiers in proper condition.

It's really real land The land - then only the boundless expanses of the Arctic Ocean, against the backdrop of which everyone arriving here is sure to take memorable photos. The Rybachy Peninsula and the adjacent Sredny Peninsula are also attractive because they can most often be observed here. It is not for nothing that the longest polar night on the mainland is here (42 days) and (59 days).

The Rybachy Peninsula is located in the very north of the Murmansk region. He greets tourists with the depressing sight of the abandoned village of Bolshiye Ozerki. Abandoned, destroyed houses immediately make you want to move on. There are only two residential settlements on the peninsula, and less than 150 people live there permanently.

Rybachy Peninsula. Coast.

The peninsula itself is a low plateau, indented by small rivers, streams and lakes. The most high point- 334 m.

During the Second World War, fierce battles were fought for the peninsula, and the remains of guns and military fortifications can still be seen throughout its territory. In the post-war years there were military bases, a large port, a collective farm, several settlements, but gradually all this was abandoned and fell into disrepair. All that remained throughout the peninsula were dilapidated houses, Soviet and German pillboxes, and abandoned and rusting equipment. Until 2009, the peninsula was a border zone, and to visit it you had to get a pass; now you can travel here freely.

There is only one active one left here military base, in the village of Vaida-Guba, near the bay of the same name. Not far from the village there is a lighthouse and a monument to soldiers who died in the battles of the Great Patriotic War. One of the first weather stations in Russia is located here; it was built here more than a century ago.

The most popular route goes to the most northern point Rybachy Peninsula- Cape German.

Formally, the peninsula is washed by the Barents Sea, but when you look at the huge turquoise waves, you get the feeling that you are standing on the shore of the harsh and boundless northern ocean. By the way, you can almost always admire these waves here, regardless of the season. Even in summer, the wind blows very often on the coast, and in winter the sea does not freeze. Although going here in winter just to admire the views is not the best good idea. In summer, temperatures rarely rise above 20 degrees. Summer is very short, it is relatively warm here only in July-August, and night frosts begin already in September.

Rybachy Peninsula - how to get there?

Abandoned village on the peninsula

You can only get to the Rybachy Peninsula by car. The border zone has been abolished; a Russian passport is enough to travel. Since the peninsula is a natural park, formally you need to fill out an electronic approval for visiting it, but in fact, there is no one on the peninsula who could check whether the visit has been approved or not.

The easiest option is to book an excursion with some tour company that deals with this. I can recommend the company Nordextream, they deliver to the Rybachy and Sredniy peninsulas and do it well. Here is a detailed report with photos about the trip with them.

But if you decide to risk your car, know that you need a well-prepared SUV, and preferably more than one. The second SUV will be very useful in order to pull out the first one.

From Murmansk you need to take the A-138 highway, about 100 km away. there will be the Titovka River. We cross it and turn right. We drive about 50 km to the village of Bolshoye Ozerko, located on the peninsula.

This is where the road ends; it’s very difficult to call what comes next as a road. But along the rivers and rocks you can try to get to the northernmost part of the European territory of Russia - the German Peninsula.

Video of a trip to the Rybachy Peninsula

 

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