The Oryol forest area: taiga is 4 km of Moscow.

The national park is situated on the territory of the Khotynetsky and Znamensky regions of the Orlov region, in picturesque places on the border of the Kaluga and Bryansk regions. Tourists routes of more than 150 km long go through the territory of more than 85 ha. The Oryol forest area is surrounded with a river with a beautiful name Vytebet and its valley.

To lovers of remote ages, antique, Turgenev and to treasure finders.

History, legends and national folk assume that it is the Oryol forest area where a bogatyr Ilya Muromets fought with Solovey-razbojnik (Robber the Nightingale) in a village of Nine Oak (these are the characters of Russian folk). Thick forests with bogs covered the territory at the end of the first millennium A.D. and a huge nine-trunk oak grew in such a place. Organized criminals’ hideaways were situated within this mysterious oak. Bandit gangs robbed and killed merchants coming along the main strategically important road.

Pagan bandits ransacked and destroyed a near-located Odrinsky monastery not once during several centuries. The best-known bandits’ leaders are an above mentioned Solovej-Razbojnik and Kudiyar who left teeming treasures hidden deep in the ground on the Territory of the Oryol forest area. Treasure finders equipped with metal detectors are searching for them through bogs and forests – isn’t this an active rest which combines both pleasant and useful activity?

The settlements of the first millennium A.D. are located along the Vytebet River and Radovischi brook. A Radovische burial mound dates back to the 10^th century but jewels can be still found there! Even locals can’t resist temptation to find All-Russia known bandit Kudeyar’s treasures in the forests where bright ribbons of snakes’ species squirm among the trees. They say, they find treasure. Either a family or another suddenly starts to have a wealthy lifestyle. Its neighbours say that it is strongly connected with the treasure!

The monuments of ancient culture on the territory of the Oryol forest area are: an ancient church in a village Khotiml-Kuzmenkovo, a chapel in a village Nine Oaks and an orthodox cathedral in a village L’gov which has become world’s known due to “A Sportsman’s Notebook” by I.S.Turgenev. It is the place where he used to wander through forest bushes, along boggy rivers (the Vytebet River, the Shkovka River, and the Rosota River) equipped with a gun and accompanied with a dog. Writers, journalists and men of letters are longing to come to the forest area to walk along the routes of the great writer.

To wish lovers

There is a belief: make a wish, tie a piece of cloth near a saint spring “Kipyashchie peski” (“Boiling sands”) and it will come true. The orthodox priests from a near-located church are strongly against such a custom. There were even hacked out several bushes near the spring and the spring is consecrated several times a year by an Orthodox custom. But people continue to wish and tie pieces of cloth near the spring.

By the way, the spring has been welling since 1702. The lighting struck the ground in summer three centuries ago. The rumble of thunder was followed by wonderful radiance. It was the water welling from deep under the ground that sparkled. Nowadays, the spring runs from show-white sand. Moreover, the water runs quicker if you start to speak louder near it. As far as a cry is concerned, it has no effect!

To Russian muskrat lovers

Children and their parents will be interested in visiting an exceptional zoo. There are more than 50 kinds of various animals in the zoo. The animals, even huanaco  (Lama guanicoe), buffalo(Bison bison), yak (Bos mutus),  moufflon (Ovis musimon) live in open-air cages. They are very uncommon for taiga but they have perfectly adjusted to the climate. There is a camel bird farm which offers meat and egg dainties.

There dwell more than 220 kinds of vertebrate animals in the Oryol forest area. Common for taiga birds species are the following: capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus), hazel grouse(Tetrastes bonasia), boreal owl (Aegolius funereus),  nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes),  black woodpecker(Dryocopus martius); they neighbour to steppe fauna representatives: polecat , spotted sousilk (Citellus suslicus), European partridge  (Perdix perdix),  quail (Coturnix). An increased number of stork (Ciconia) nests, which are located along the Karachaevskoe road (on water towers) on the way to the forest area, proves healthy environment.

Foresters have a significant place in the park: elk, boar, wolf, fox, roe, hare and sometimes even brown bear (Ursus arctos). There live 50 re-acclimatized bisons (Bison) and even red deer (Cervus elaphus). There are many 147 kinds of breeding birds, 45 of them are rare species and 9 of them can be met in unite couples. Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) and hazel grouse (Tetrastes bonasia) have been preserved only in the forests of the Khotynetsky and Znamensky regions, the Oryol region.

Russian muskrat is worth special attention. It has been a Red-Book listed species since 1920. That time its hunting was forbidden. This rare amphibian (with insect character) spends a lot of time in the water and also in holes on the reservoir’s banks. The animal is pantophagous but prefers small deer and shell fish. Per day it eats the quantity of food that equals to its own weight. Russian muskrat doesn’t breed in bonds but its population has become 40 in the Oryol forest area.

To mushrooms, berries, fishing, nature and arts and crafts lovers.

The area of a berrying ground is 2200 ha. It grows up to 95 tons of raspberry, 8-10 tons of strawberry, 300 tons of mushrooms annually! There run more than 360 km of rivers and brooks in the Oryol forest area. They are mainly the feeders of the great Russian Oka river. The park’s main river is the Vytebet river with the feeders: Shkovka, Lisichka, Elenka, Moschenka, Rakitnya. The ors, the Tskan and the Rydan Rivers flow to the Nugr River region. There are also 82 hand-made stock reservoirs. The largest have appeared on the place of peat fields. Fishermen fish out more than a ton of fish per year (pike, luce, carp, crucian carp, tench and perch).

There are 570 kinds of trees, bushes and herbs in a dendro-park. There are small lands of pear moss bogs, which appeared long before dinosaurs, between fir and fir needle woods. marshwort (Oxycoccus gen.), red bilberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), bog whortleberry (Vaccinium uliginosum) affect a moss cover. Orchids are very rare in plant stand meadows: crowfoot  (Orchis maculata), spotleaf orchis  (Dactylorhiza maculata) listed on the Red Book.

The park of the 21^st century shows a future relationship-model between man and nature. The park’s alleys make up a figure XXI of 400 and 600 meters. Ecologically pure products grow on the territory of the Oryol forest area. The locals are very friendly. There is a unique National museum “A peasant’s hut” in a village Iljinskoe. Local old women welcome you, sing and needle. It is great depression treatment and an opportunity to meet good and kind people!