Oka - the river, which is the largest tributary of the Volga, it flows through the territory of 7 regions: Oryol, Tula, Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, along its channel there is a significant number of fairly large cities. The names of some of them even come from the name of the river. Oka, for example, Kashira and Kaluga, as well as presumably Kolomna, describe the features of the Oka channel in the area, respectively, "Oka wide", "Oka meadow", "Broken eye".
The name itself has many versions of origin, one of them is extremely interesting: according to this hypothesis, the name of the river comes from the Old Russian "water", and this term was later borrowed by various peoples, reflected in their language. Examples are Latin aqua, French eau, Spanish agua, and so on. Historians and philologists even trace the relationship between the words "eye" and "ocean". Pretty curious, isn't it?
Oka is a river that originates in the center of the Central Russian Upland, after the Moskva River flows into it, it becomes extremely winding and remains so until it flows into the Volga in Nizhny Novgorod, gradually expanding asapproaching him.
At the beginning of the last century, the Oka was a full-fledged navigable river, but now flights on it are carried out mainly in spring and early summer, during the flood, in other seasons, not in all its sections the depth is sufficient for the passage of large ships, therefore officially the river is navigable from Kaluga, transit - from Kolomna, from the mouth of the Moscow River. In addition, it has many sections with rocky rifts and shallows, which makes navigation much more difficult.
Ships are mostly cruise liners, because the river flows in very picturesque places, attracting many tourists who want to see what it is like - the main river of Ancient Russia, the Oka River. Photos of the beautiful views along the coast illustrate the experience of cruising along it, so be sure to take your camera with you to capture the beautiful views.
Oka is a river that is also rich in fish, so it attracts fishermen with its waters. Experienced fishermen especially recommend places such as the area of Serpukhov, Kashira, Kolomna, the city of Ozery, as well as the place where Lopasna flows into it. After Kolomna, when the Moskva River flows into the Oka, its water becomes much more polluted, and the diversity of fish is sharply reduced.
However, the Oka is a river with significant recreational potential, year after year its banks attract tourists from the European part of Russia, there are a large number of boarding houses and holiday homes with beaches, despite the rather fast current,there are a lot of places on the Oka with sandy beaches and shallows, where it is so nice to swim on a hot day. In addition, there are many large and not very cities with a rich history and interesting sights. Tour operators offer both long cruises and short trips that can be completed over the weekend.
Some trend towards shallowing, as well as a decrease in the number of offered tours sold out long before the start of navigation, suggests that it is better to hurry up and make a trip along the Oka, which will definitely not be forgotten soon.
