Where does ABBYY Road lead

What summer awaits a person who works at ABBYY? Bright and filled with new experiences. For this, back in 2008 we came up with “Summer with ABBYY” - a series of diverse trips, excursions and trips. Each of us can find something to his liking - from excursions to Red October and the Central Air Force Museum in Monino to a beach volleyball tournament or SUP safari in Serebryany Bor. Anyone can sign up and participate, and you can also call relatives, children and friends.

As a rule, our “Summer” begins at the end of May with a two-day rally ABBYY Road. And if you signed up for it, then with a high probability you will come to the company of people who rarely intersect at work, from different projects and departments - from developers, product owners and designers to lawyers and marketers. And during the trip nothing prevents them from getting to know each other. It’s also lazy to get together somewhere. It is much more convenient when more experienced travelers help to think through the route and organize the trip.

In this post, we will talk a little about the history of ABBYY Road and the intricacies of organizing a motor rally, and then walk you along this year’s route in the Lipetsk Region, show time, mileage, maps, and something else. Go!


The first ABBYY Road took place in 2010. Then 32 travelers from ABBYY in 10 cars set off for two days on the route Moscow - Sergiev Posad - Kalyazin - Uglich - Myshkin - Moscow, and ABBYY Vice President Aram Pakhchanyan led the rally (pictured from the right). Since then, the routes have changed every year, and the essence of the trip has remained the same. Get to know, chat and make friends with colleagues, discover new places, wander around small central Russian cities.

Rally always takes two days. On Saturday morning we leave the city to see interesting places, spend the night in a hotel at the most remote point of the route and return to Moscow on Sunday evening.

Wherever we have been in the last 9 years. Every year a new route. Almost all areas covered. Share with you:

Who comes up with all this?

This year, as always, we selected the rally route all together about 1.5-2 months before the trip. All comers gathered for a big meeting and shared ideas where you want to wave closer to summer. Made up 4 routes:

• Route 1 - “Memorable pages of history”: Moscow - Mozhaisk - the source of the Moscow River - Gagarin - Vyazma / Smolensk - Borodino field.
• Route 2 - “In places of heroic glory”: Moscow - Kirzhach - Vladimir - Murom - Karacharovo - Gus Khrustalny.
• Route 3 - "Better than the mountains - only the mountains": Moscow - Kudykina Gora - Yelets - reserve "Galichya Gora" - Vorgolsky rocks.
• Route 4 - “Around and Near Tver: Protected Places”: Moscow - Klin - Konakovo State District Power Station - Zavidovo - Torzhok - Rzhev.

A few days later, they launched a vote in the corporate social network and in the week they chose the best one out of all the options. It turned out to be a "mountain" route. More than 50 people voted for him. The second place was taken by a trip towards Mozhaisk. By the way, we are thinking of going there next year.

By the same method we have chosen places for spending the night. There were two options: small wooden houses in the territory of the Kudykina Gora park or a hotel in Yelets. It is not surprising that almost everyone wanted to spend a warm May evening not in the city, but in the park, in nature.

Some calculations

And now is the time to talk about several important features of ABBYY Road.

• As the experience of past years has shown, the most mobile and organized group can be a group of 11-13 crews. When there are more cars, it’s hard to keep up with all the excursions and activities on time.
• It’s comfortable for 40-50 people to participate in one rally. All will fit in one hotel, without any problems will be divided into a couple of excursion groups (20-25 people each), all together will be able to eat in one cafe. If more people go, you will have to separate the participants, but you don’t want to do this.
• So that as many as possible who wish can participate in ABBYY Road, the race always takes place twice, on the same route. This year we chose to travel on May 18-19 and June 8-9.
• "Horseless" participants will always find a place in one of the cars.
• On the trip you can take only one guest (friend, girlfriend, relative. If you have several children, then you can take them all).
• We always ask participants to calculate their strength and sign up for a run only if they are ready to spend 5-6 hours behind the wheel or in a car. In the case of a trip to the Lipetsk region - 6-8 hours.
• We usually leave early - about 6-7 hours. Passengers agree in advance with the drivers how they will get to the meeting point.

How to book a trip?

Since ABBYY Road is traditionally very popular, we, as usual, warned everyone about the start of the rally recording in a day. Accordingly, the next day, participants had to fill out a short form and indicate which dates they want to go, which of them wants to be a driver, who is a passenger, who will ride with them in the same car and whether there will be free seats in the crew. This time around 30 people signed up in the first two minutes. And in the next couple of days - another 39.

The group included the first 13 drivers and the first 33 passengers, including relatives, children and friends. The rest fell into the “waiting list” and moved from it to the main group when there were empty seats in it (if one of the first signatories refused). A couple of weeks before the rally, we began to actively prepare. What exactly we did, we tell under the spoiler.

Go! First day: 400 km on the road, Elets and Kudykina Gora

The route of the first day of the rally on the map looked like this (following the link - a detailed description of the route with an approximate calculation of the time).



Direction : Moscow - Yelets (Lipetsk Region)
Distance : ~ 400 km
Travel time : ~ 3.5-4.5 hours

Our cars met at a gas station on the 21st km of the M-4 Don highway. We stuck red ABBYY Road stickers on the cars, took them on the walkie-talkie to be in touch, and on the road. From 7 to 10:30 we overcame Moscow, Tula and Lipetsk regions. According to our recommendations, the participants acquired transponders (an electronic device for paying for toll roads on special lanes. You can buy or rent a transponder), so as not to stop every time to pay for your fare on the M-4 and not stand in lines of cars.

The Don track is good, and the permitted speed for toll areas is from 90 to 130 km / h, so many people arrived in Yelets around 10:30. This is 2.5 hours earlier than we planned, so the guys went to explore the city on their own.

Yelets has a lot of unusual things, for example, along the streets in the center there are two names: one is historical, the other is modern.



An excellent view of the Ascension Cathedral opens from the bridge over the Sosna River:



Nothing special, just listening to an excursion on Peace Street in Yelets:



Yelets is a city with quiet streets, two-story merchant mansions. Examining them is a fascinating occupation:



We dined at the refectory of the Znamensky Monastery. Only there was a whole group. 30 liters of borsch, 50 servings of buckwheat and 100 slices of black bread were eaten.

“ Even after a tour of Yelts, we returned back to the monastery to plunge into the font. I highly recommend to fans of extreme and intercepted spirit. »
Alexander, developer of ABBYY

Direction : Yelets - safari park “Kudykina Gora”
Distance : 48 km
Travel time : ~ 30-40 min

Remember the saying “Go to kudykina mountains, steal tomatoes?” So, this place is located between Yelets and Zadonsk, at the bend of the Don River. True, it is completely



unrelated to the saying, and it looks like this: On Kudykina Gora, lamas, camels, goats, horses, yaks graze. You can stroke a pony and horses:



And in the evening on one of the hills Gorynych came to life and breathed fire.

“ Healthy lifestyle, diet, lack of alcohol and nicotine in the blood of tourists - all this provokes incredible heartburn in Gorynych. It is difficult for a fairy-tale hero to adapt to the modern world :-( "
Sergey, head of the group of product trainers ABBYY

The participants of the next, June, ABBYY Road were lucky to swim in the Don - the water was already warm.



In the evening, we rode bicycles, grilled kebabs, played tabletops.

Second day: Galichya Gora and Vorgolsky rocks

The route of the second day was more tricky (by reference - a detailed route with an approximate calculation of time).



We start from Kudykina Gora.
Direction : Kudykina Gora - Galichya Gora
Distance : 43 km
Travel time : ~ 30 minutes

The next day, we went to see Galichy Mountain - one of the smallest nature reserves in the world. He even got into the Guinness Book of Records. Here is a nursery of rare birds of prey. Saker falcons and other endangered species are bred in it. Moreover, birds from birth do not contact with people: they create conditions that are as close as possible to the wild. Each year, on the Mount of Galicia, several dozen falcon falcons are released into the wild. Another part is sold to Arab countries, where the tradition of falconry has long existed. In addition, falcons born on Mount Galichy serve at Moscow airports: birds of prey scare away migrants, which can interfere with the takeoff and landing of aircraft.

In addition to falcons, the park is inhabited by owls, splyuski, eagle owls, goshawks, eagles and other birds. Some of them can be seen without cells at arm's length, but stretching your arms toward them is still not worth it.


Goshawk

Direction : Galichya Gora - Argamach Park
Distance : 39 km
Travel time : ~ 30 minutes

We had lunch at the Argamach Archaeological Park, and after that we competed in archery and javelin throwing. To hit a target with a spear even from a short distance is not an easy task.



Then we went to the village hut, where a local craftswoman weaves lace on bobbins. All of us were able to see how serious this work is. However, our girls decided to try.



And then we went for a walk. The weather was great outside. I immediately wanted to lie in tall grass and at the same time take a traditional general photo with ABBYY Road:



Direction : Argamach - Vorgolsky Rocks
Distance : 38 km
Travel time : ~ 30 minutes

In the middle of the day we visited another beautiful place in the reserve Galichy Gora - Vorgolsky Rocks. On the way to them we saw an old abandoned mill. You can get into it, but not for free, but for 100 rubles: The



Vorgol River flows past the mill. Over one of its shores, 25-meter-high layered limestone cliffs rise.



Here you can take a walk, rock climbing or just lie down, enjoying a great view:

The way home

Direction : Vorgolsky Rocks - Moscow
Distance : 400 km
Travel time : 5 hours

I didn’t want to leave home - you get so many impressions, energy and emotions from these places. After ABBYY Road, previously unknown people no longer seem like strangers, and I want to visit the places I recently learned about again and show them to friends.

The result of our trip.



Where are we going next year? We are already thinking about the route. Want to join our team, develop artificial intelligence technologies and spend your free time actively? Visit us, we have vacancies .