"4 day trip along the Oka river" Russia Travelogue by Pablos_new

"It is the largest right-bank tributary of the Volga. Rising in the Central Russian Upland, it flows 932 miles (1,500 km), first north in a rather narrow, winding valley to Kaluga, then sharply eastward across a broad lowland to join the Volga at Nizhny Novgorod. The area of its drainage basin is 94,600 square miles (245,000 square km)." That is what Encyclopædia Britannica says about Oka. It misses spectacular landscapes and many towns with interesting history along the river.

This is my latest car trip across country. From o1.05.2003 till 04.05.2003 we managed to run by car about 1200 km across Moskovskaya, Ryazanskaya and Vladimirskaya regions.

Main visiting points were -

<a href="http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/588df/96317/">Kolomna</a> - old town with ancient fortress
<a href="http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/588df/95eeb/">Konstantinovo</a> - a small village on the banks of Oka river - motherland of a poet Sergey Esenin
<a href="http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/588df/8a1c2/">Ryazan</a> - administrative center of the region, old city with rich history
<a href="http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/588df/97c6d/">Kasimov</a> - very interesting place, town where muslims and ortodox cultures met in medieval times
<a href="http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/588df/907c1/"Murom</a> - small town, more known by russian fairy tales and old stories

Here are our crew and a carriage.

Our permanent crew in this trip was: me, my wife Anna, my son Anton, and our friends Tanya and Sasha (taking photo, not on picture).

Transportation: <a href="http://www.gaz.ru/"> "Volga" GAZ-3110</a> - very long car (4.9 m) with 130 h.p. engine.

During our trip two more cars of my friends joint us. One in Ryazan' and Konstantinovo, another one in Kasimov and Murom.