Pushchino is a science town, built in the 1960s on the high bank of the Oka river to house the biologists, biochemists and physicists who were moved out of Moscow to work on the problems of life. It has a neat grid of apartment blocks, tree-lined avenues and a population of twenty thousand, many of them researchers or their families. It feels unlike most Russian towns, with a campus atmosphere and a good deal of green space, and it sits among pine and birch woods that run down to the river.
The Oka is the big river of this part of Russia, wide and slow, and it makes a large bend here, with sandy beaches and meadows on the far bank. A few kilometres away, near Danki, lies the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve, one of the oldest nature reserves in the country, where European bison have been bred and reintroduced, and where visitors can see them in large enclosures. Pushchino also has a famous radio astronomy observatory, part of the Lebedev Institute, whose big dish is visible from the surrounding fields, a striking sight rising out of the farmland.
The riding is easy, a gentle run along quiet roads between Serpukhov and the Oka, through villages with wooden houses, old churches and the occasional dacha. Surfaces are generally good on the main routes and patchy on the side roads, and the gradients are minimal. Traffic is light except on weekends, when people drive out from Moscow to swim, fish and walk on the riverbank. There are viewpoints over the river that are worth a stop, particularly in the evening, when the sun is low and the water turns gold.
Pushchino has what a town of twenty thousand has: petrol stations, supermarkets, cafes and a pleasant riverside park. It is a good place to stop for a meal, with the sort of simple, decent food that serves students and researchers, and it is a more relaxed alternative to the busy road to Serpukhov. If you want to see the bison, check the opening times and the rules of the reserve in advance, since access is controlled. Late spring and early autumn are the best seasons, when the river is calm and the woods are fresh or turning.