Sredny means middle, and the name is exact: this peninsula sits between the mainland of the Kola coast and the larger Rybachy Peninsula, joined to both by narrow isthmuses, a low, treeless stretch of tundra, rock and lakes pushed out into the Barents Sea. It looks empty, and it mostly is, but it has a long human history. Pomor fishermen from the White Sea worked these coasts for centuries, and between the world wars the western part belonged to Finland, as part of the narrow corridor that gave the Finns access to the Arctic Ocean.
The Second World War left the deepest marks. In 1941 the German advance toward Murmansk was stopped on the ridge at the southern neck of Sredny, and the front froze there for three years. Soviet troops held the peninsulas throughout the war, supplied by sea under constant attack, and the ground is still littered with trenches, gun positions, barbed wire and the debris of war. Later came the Cold War: garrisons, airstrips and radar posts, most of them abandoned in the 1990s and now crumbling slowly in the wind.
The riding is serious off-road work. There is no paved road on the peninsula, only tracks of gravel, sand, rock and mud that braid across the tundra and split into multiple ruts where vehicles have avoided the worst sections. Some fords can be deep after heavy rain or snowmelt, and the ground near lakes and streams can be boggy. A light adventure bike with knobbly tyres, riding in company, is the right approach. In summer the sun never sets, which helps, but fog can roll in from the sea at any time and turn a clear day grey and cold within minutes.
You are a long way from help here. Zaozyorsk, the nearest town on the map, is a closed naval settlement, so bring all the fuel, food and water you will need from Murmansk or Zapolyarny. The peninsula lies inside the border zone, and permits have been required in the past, so check before you go. In return you get an almost completely wild Arctic coast, wildflowers in July, reindeer and Arctic terns, and a sense of space that few places in Europe can match.