Ugra National Park

Ugra National Park is not a single block but a set of strips following river valleys across Kaluga region - the Ugra, the Zhizdra and the Vysokoye - protecting about a thousand square kilometres of floodplain meadow, oak and pine forest, oxbow lakes and the villages and monasteries along them. It is a UNESCO biosphere reserve. The landscape is the middle-Russian one at its most characteristic: slow rivers with sandy banks, meadows cut for hay, mixed forest, and beaver, elk, boar, otter and a long bird list including black stork. Canoe and raft routes run the rivers, which is the best way to see it, and there are walking trails and forest cordons. Optina Pustyn monastery, one of the most significant in Russian religious history and a place Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Gogol all visited, stands at Kozelsk on the park's southern edge.

What you actually see

• The river valleys - strips of protected floodplain along the Ugra and Zhizdra.
• The water routes - canoe and raft trips as the natural way through the park.
• The wildlife - beaver, elk, otter and black stork along the rivers.
• Optina Pustyn - the monastery at Kozelsk on the southern edge.

When to go

May to September; late spring for high water on the rivers. A day for one sector, several to paddle a route. Autumn for colour and mushrooms.

Honest expectations

The park is fragmented into strips, so getting between sectors needs a car and time. Mosquitoes and horseflies in summer, and ticks carrying encephalitis. Water routes need equipment or an operator. Facilities are minimal outside Kaluga.

Nearby

Kaluga and its space museum are north-east; Optina Pustyn is at Kozelsk.