Our country is rich in beautiful corners of nature, where its strength and beauty are most clearly revealed. The Kola Peninsula is one of them. This is the land of the widest stone plateaus and snow-capped mountains, fast rivers and cleanest lakes. Amazing nature here - harsh, ascetic, majestic in its beauty.
Kola Peninsula
The Kola Peninsula is located beyond the Arctic Circle, in the northwestern part of Russia. Its territory covers an area of almost 100 thousand square meters. km (70% of the Murmansk region) and is washed from the north by the White Sea, and in the southeast by the Barents Sea. The complex relief of the region is formed by depressions, mountains, terraces and numerous plateaus. The glaciers of the Quaternary period, which had a powerful impact and left glacial "scars", smoothed mountain peaks, trough valleys, added originality to it.
The area is indented with numerous lakes and rivers. They divided the territory into separate massifs, the inhabitants of the peninsula call them "tundra". There are more than 18 thousand rivers here. Many of them cross countless lakes on their way,stringing them like blue beads on a string. It is not for nothing that the Arctic is called the lake region - there are more than 100 thousand reservoirs on the peninsula, mostly shallow, of glacial origin, but there are also large ones.
Characteristics of the Kola River
Murmansk river Kola originates from the northern bay of Kolozero. Either in steep banks strewn with boulders, or among the flat reaches, where trees come close to the water, it tends to the Barents Sea and, having overcome 83 km through a very hilly area, flows into the Kola Bay.
The nature of the river is quite diverse, there are small rocky rifts, flat areas are replaced by rapids. The channel width varies from 5 to 15 km. The Kola River does not dry up, but the water level, depending on the season, either shallows or rises significantly after the rains. In some places, majestic pines, birches, mountain ash rise close to the coastline; in places - steep slopes dotted with large boulders.
Main tributaries
The Kola River in the Murmansk region has numerous tributaries. The main, largest of them are: Bolshaya Kitsa, Medvezhya, Tyukhta, Voronya, Orlovka, Kildinskiy creek. Kola on its way passes a chain of lakes, three are quite large reservoirs (Kolozero, Pulozero, Murdozero). As a result, the area of the basin, together with tributaries and lakes, is 3850 sq. km.
In the notes of Lieutenant of the Navy Reinecke M., published in St. Petersburg in 1830, one can find a description of the river. Kola, as it became known, previously flowed north of the city of Kola, but then changed course,cutting off a low headland from the eastern shore of the bay and forming a small island.
Origin of the name
The Kola River gave its name to the city of the same name standing on its banks, and the bay, and the entire peninsula. There are different versions of the origin of this name. Perhaps it comes from the Sami word "koljok", that is, "golden river". Its origin from the Finno-Ugric "kuljoki" - "fish river" is not excluded either.
One way or another, but over time, the name was successfully transformed into a modern and familiar Russian ear - the Kola River.
Fishing without limits
"Fish" toponyms in some cases convey to us information about what our ancestors hunted. And in our time, the Kola Peninsula is a very attractive place for true connoisseurs of catching fish from the noble salmon family: trout, brown trout, grayling, whitefish. But most of all fishermen are attracted by the queen of the Kola waters - salmon.
Cola is a salmon river with lots of big fish. Every year, thousands of anglers come here in hopes of a record catch. The season from May 15 to the end of June is the best time for fishing, because new strong fish enter from the sea, and sometimes specimens weighing up to 20 kg come across. In terms of the size of individuals, the Kola River is considered the most outstanding in the world. It is not surprising that in search of special impressions from catching this beautiful, powerful and very tasty fish, professionals and amateurs come here not only from all Russian corners, but also from Europe.
Cola's uniqueness lies in its availability. It flows literally next to the regional center, and you can get to the fishing spot very quickly.
Active recreation on the river
The Kola River and its tributaries are a great place for outdoor recreation. Flat areas are ideal for leisurely family rafting, during which you can admire the surrounding landscape to your heart's content. On the gently sloping banks there are equipped parking lots for organizing a picnic. There are many places on the river where sports enthusiasts can go rafting, and in its lower reaches, which are many kilometers of rapids, routes of varying difficulty for kayaking are organized.
The Kola Peninsula attracts people who are looking for adventure and love new experiences, those who like to relax away from civilization, surrounded by the beauties of northern nature. Many, having visited this mysterious and enchanting land, seek to return to this paradise for the esthete again.
