Russia. North. Kola peninsula. 2018

alekseyklimov

Observer
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I continue my story about driving a group of Terranavtika tourists to the Rybachy and Sredny peninsulas...

Yesterday was pretty difficult for me. We arrived at Ozerko quite late, then tried for a long time to get water into the huge Sobol tank at the spring, then we agreed on food and prepared for bed. Sea delicacies brightened things up, but the amount consumed kept me awake half the night with thoughts about possible protein poisoning. It’s no joke, by the way, so I advise everyone who plans to eat crabs and scallops to remember this.

At Rybachy and Sredniy, the reception from Megafon is fairly good, and whereyou can find it, it usually has excellent 3G. So I checked the new data with the forecast that I had had in advance, and was happy to note that we would have good weather the next day. It was very welcome and the forecast did not lie.

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I can’t sleep long, so I got up at dawn. A pleasant light complemented the clear sky and a beautiful low tide.

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I haven’t seen that Rybachiy. It was so harsh nine years ago that I could not believe that it can comfortable and warm here. And the funny thing is that on the first days of our trip the weather was about the same as in June 2009. It paid off!

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We did not even go to the abandoned village of Ozerko. No one from the team expressed a strong wish to go, and I personally have seen enough of these abandoned places for many years to come. There are abandoned five-story buildings all over the country and, frankly, they are all very similar. Although here, if you wish, you can find an interesting foreground

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The sun shines warmly and pleasantly. We visited the bathhouse, swam in the bay and, pleased with ourselves, got going around the Rybachy Peninsula along the classic western track.

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By the way, another lighthouse in my small collection. If anyone needs it, its coordinates are 69.712731, 32.153108. I don’t have a track from this trip. Firstly, it is quite traditional and repeats hundreds, if not thousands of other tracks. Secondly, I just forgot to record it, and the Sable doesn’t have special trackers unlike my truck "Kargusha"

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alekseyklimov

Observer
By the way, a few words about our escort car. Our crew consists of three people - me and Nastya with Vlad. As the “leader of the expedition,” I am in charge of almost everything, and the guys are in charge of photo and video. At first, I was ready to let them on the roof, as they are a couple, but their fate was determined by their lack of warm sleeping bags. As a result, they slept on a bunk bed in the Sable cabin, under the warm air of webasto, and I enjoyed the huge Autohome Columbus Carbon Fiber tent

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Although it is smaller than the one I had on Ford Ranger, it is much faster to assemble. As a result, I spent these days in royal conditions, though every morning all adults and children asked me how I sleep there and why I wasn’t dead yet :)

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I liked the Sable. Like UAZ, it is a fairly honest car, although it has a number of features and faults. But who hasn’t?! I should separately tell my thoughts and impressions about it and all its equipment and tuning at some point.

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Besides all the washing and bathing, I arranged with the administration of the base to get rid of garbage. Turns out that 15+ people generate some egregious amount of garbage, despite the fact that we tried to compactly pack, twist and condense it. So in addition to this garbage bag we will have two more in the future.

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So, the weather is great and we are moving to the main point of our trip - the lighthouse on Cape Nemetsky. This must be the best day for good weather, which means that we have great people in our team who hardly ever sin

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This road is of good quality and from time to time we come across cars like Opel Vectra B and the like - low and without all-wheel drive. This makes us very happy and probably upsets the convoys with flags. In August the Rybachiy generally attracts crowds, it’s as if the whole Moscow and Leningrad region came here at the same time, plus some other regions. Something attracts people here, and some of them are attracted every year!

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alekseyklimov

Observer
Following my lead, the Fiats decided to reduce the pressure as well. I did it at the museum, but thanks to a more comfortable independent suspension, the guys only decided to do this just now. They reduced the pressure in the wheels and slightly increased in the rear bellows, as a result, we drove much more comfortably and faster

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A road with barrels does not look as harsh on a sunny day as it could, it just looks like a funny artifact, and not as a basic necessity.

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I still haven’t figured out how to accurately calculate the time of the ebbs and flows, but going in that direction we were lucky with the ebb.

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So we played in the sand and took the pictures we needed

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Those who missed this video in the previous publication, can see the result here

 

alekseyklimov

Observer
The Fiats did great, by the way. They carried their passengers with comfort, did not pass in front of soaked soil or small wades

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All in all, we did not choose the road and drove the way we found beautiful and interesting. I believe the city cars we’ve met had to go round this puddle

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And here it is - the most northern point of the European mainland of Russia

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We carry out the traditional photo with a lighthouse in a team format.

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alekseyklimov

Observer
Remains of a whale lie on the shore. Most of it has already dissolved, but what remains gives out a solid aroma to the surroundings.

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According to the stories, a whale was thrown here during a storm, as well as a ship near Vajda-Guba. They have a similar fate now

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The lighthouse is crowded. Some cars drive up, others leave - August is the season for these places!

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It is beautiful here, but the final night camp of our trip will be near Skorobeevsky. It is quieter and more comfier there.

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One could take this souvenir home - this is just one whale spinal bone. It’s about as big as a large stump.

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I wish they had excursions to the lighthouse. It would be interesting, and it’s just strange not to monetize such a flow of tourists

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Here I would like to just make a small note of how I loved to act as an organizer. I'm sure that 90% of the impressions depend on people on the team, and I was definitely lucky with the team on this trip. Although it is possible that only people of a certain nature usually go on such trips - there are no random people here. So I hope that this luck will last for the future trips as well

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By the way, the peninsulas are still cluttered, and the garbage is mostly technical, left by the military. I can’t say I noticed that the tourist crowds here trashed the place up.

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No report would be complete without this photo The Sable was tested in battle on this trip. The keen ear of yours truly at the earliest stages correctly detected the unscrewed hardware, and by collective efforts all negative consequences were prevented. Later on, the unit was enhanced, strengthened and improved in every way!

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A little household mess so that the pictures don’t seem too glamorous

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We are moving to the point of overnight stay, intending to catch another new sight along the way, and right on cue daylight gives you the best colours - there’s a reason why the words “photo tour” appear in the hashtags of Terranavtika! In these conditions you can make masterpieces even on the mobile phone!

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alekseyklimov

Observer
And here’s the ship itself. I was very pleased with this warm sunset shot until I saw this boat on Instagram with the northern lights in the background. Now that’s really cool, though, you’ll have to pay for these shots with significantly less comfortable weather, but to each his own. On this trip, we really wanted to get a comfortable and measured rest, and we got it.

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I could not help but climb onto the top of the boat. Climbing up is traditionally easier than climbing down.

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Anticipating the questions about why we didn’t go there, passed this and didn’t visit that, I will say that our route was limited strictly by five days, and we initially chose a relaxed schedule. People wanted to relax and have fun, rather than overcome and win. If they like these lands and they stay in their hearts, they will come back here more than once, and nobody wanted to rush around. And that seems right to me

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A little info about our centre of attraction - the big tent from World of Maverick, the Cosmos 600 one. I’d only seen smaller models before and really admired the way they were placed/assembled - this idea with “spider legs” is simply brilliant. But that is the largest tent, the one that is 6 metres in diameter and 3 metres tall! As a result, even such a giant can be set up by two people in a couple of minutes. And just one person is enough to take it down!

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We had 11 adults and 5 children in it, with chairs and tables, and in the corner was me sitting with a burner and a cauldron in the process of preparing my signature lagman. There are probably only two drawbacks of the tent. First - it is really heavy (almost 30 kg) and when folded, it’s 147x37x37 cm. That is, for example, it won’t even fit the trunk of an ordinary UAZ Patriot. In the Sable escort car, it travels in the upper middle compartment across the module. And the second and most important drawback is the price. If you are particularly impressionable, I do not recommend to even google it, not to damage your mind. But personally, I really do not see any alternatives to it. Everything else, including not the cheapest ARB tent, is just a dull garden cube from Auchan. In our case, when the weather was not particularly Sochi-like, the tent was the main place of gathering people and constant hangouts. If it weren’t for it, then in a half an hour people would crawl to their campers to hang out individually in the company with webasta. But here everyone was warm, comfortable and stayed there sometimes well after midnight.

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The evening ended with a delicious pilaf and a very beautiful sunset. This was the last night of the trip - tomorrow everyone had to go to Murmansk, from where the participants flew away by on planes, and the Terrakhods were loaded onto a car transporter and driven home.

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It was so good and warm that everyone was a little sorry that the "expedition" ended.

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In the morning we gathered in the rain, and despite the fact that we were on schedule, we checked out Cape Koroviy, which is somewhat away from the main path.

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Spent batteries are thrown next to the sign and lie polluting the environment. I guess the problem is not with the military or anything in general, it's just human nature - to ******** wherever he goes. That’s especially true for those who are in these places for work, and not at the call of the soul.

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It’s a harsh land, but it has its charm. I’m not ready to travel here of my own free will all the time, although many are attracted by the North every year.

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By the way, the road from Koroviy to Ozerko was perhaps the most difficult for the Fiats. There are really big rocks here

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But everyone managed, just had to use the winch once in the end.

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This is how I remember this region in August 2018

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It was a great experience and an interesting format for me. On this heroic photo, I will finish my story and drive my Sable to Moscow

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Frazeur1

New member
I am a little late to this party, been away for work. I always so enjoy your trips and photos Aleksey, I always look for them and they make me happy. You do fantastic things with your trips, and I love what you mentioned about your big tent. It is worth every bit of money to have everyone inside, sharing their experiences, talks of life, the trip etc., I can only imagine how wonderful that must be!

Thank you always for sharing with us! Maybe someday, we will meet, I would love to go on some trip like this, your country intrigues me greatly, and is so beautiful!
 

jeepgc

Adventurer
A bit late to your party Aleksy, but looks like a great trip - great pics and thanks for posting up.

Do you have any more updates and pics?
 

jeepgc

Adventurer
Following my lead, the Fiats decided to reduce the pressure as well. I did it at the museum, but thanks to a more comfortable independent suspension, the guys only decided to do this just now. They reduced the pressure in the wheels and slightly increased in the rear bellows, as a result, we drove much more comfortably and faster

IMG_9740.jpg


A road with barrels does not look as harsh on a sunny day as it could, it just looks like a funny artifact, and not as a basic necessity.

IMG_9742.jpg


I still haven’t figured out how to accurately calculate the time of the ebbs and flows, but going in that direction we were lucky with the ebb.

IMG_9744.jpg


So we played in the sand and took the pictures we needed

IMG_9755.jpg


Those who missed this video in the previous publication, can see the result here

NIce formation driving btw :)
 

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