Voronka River in Tula Region

If you've ever seen the images of Russian nature in movies or imagined what they looked like from books, then this is the place where it all comes true. Beautiful sunsets, morning fog, rustling birch trees, vast meadows, clear river, peace and quiet, lots of light, harmony and serenity. This is what the famous Russian poet Esenin was writing about and Leo Tolstoy lived not so far away (an hour away after Tula in Yasnaya Polyana, which has a similar landscape but is much more crowded).

The best part is that you can easily drive there, even though the roads are not perfect. You'll make it if you take it slow and even better if you've got a crossover or an SUV, although that's not necessary — you could even get through with a motorhome, although there's a couple of places, if you go further along the road to the nicer places where you'll be better off with a van, such as VW Transporter or Mercedes rather than a standard bulky motorhome made for the asphalt roads.

Along the river, there are lots of spots for fishing and wild camping. You can set a tent, make a fire (you'll need to bring your own woods though as the forest is a bit far from the river), swim, enjoy the beautiful view and the sun.

There are a few spots along the river where you can set your tent, shown on the map below. All of them are accessible with a car and have fireplaces, but you'll need to bring some stuff with you if you want to set up a proper camp. The locals like to hang out and fish at the river, so during the evenings these places may get some people, but it's not too crowded and you can find a secluded spot almost all the time.

Most of the spots have cellular network reception, but only Beeline operator has 3G / 4G internet, Megafon coverage is a bit patchy, so you might want to get two sim cards. The nearest shop is in the nearby Archangelskoye settlement, but you can also drive to Yasnogorsk, which is a bit bigger and has a supermarket. There are two stalls when you enter the village, one of them also sells honey, and they have amazing potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers and apples. Also, just within an hour drive towards Moscow is the amazing Russian cuisine restaurant Mark i Lev, which serves local organic produce. The best place to buy food, however, is from a local farmer "babushka" at Varfolomeevo — 30 mins away (see the map above for a mark and the photo below).

Overall, the area is one of the few places around Moscow which is not crowded and has a very strong energy (they call such places "mesto sily" — the "power spot" — in Russian). 

To get there, you should take the M2 highway from Moscow to Tula. You should put the route to Yasnogorsk into your navigator (which is about 30 mins before Tula), but once you're arriving, make a turn to Arkhangelskoye and drive through there. The road up to Arkhangelskoye is perfect — a 4-way motorway, newly renovated. You can stop at Lavka Lavka farmer market and Mark i Lev Kalachnaya for a nice organic food break along the way or even spend a night at Bolotov Dacha countryside residence 40 mins away. Only the last stretch of the road from Arkhangelskoe towards the river itself is a 10-minute drive along a dirt / field road, but it's quite OK just don't do more than 30 km / hour.

If you don't have your own car, you can rent one or take YouDrive car-sharing (both will cost about €30 per day). You'll need a crossover or an SUV, but even a normal car will get through, just make sure you drive there when there's no rain and in case of car sharing make sure you have mobile network reception where you stop the car, so you can open and close it. The roads are actually quite OK (see the image below), so you'll manage just fine.