Chernobyl Tour 2008

A hang over, a cup of coffee and croissants was just what one needs when visiting the worst nuclear disaster area in the world. Some people often ask me why I tend to go to places which are pencilled in the history books as being either dangerous, no go areas or sites of mass murder. Now, for me I don’t see it as ‘rubber necking’ or I have a morbid fascination with death. I go to these places to get a better understanding of what us as humans are capable of and try to get some kind of answer…. but most of the time I come away with more questions then I started with. Of course you can see these places on TV and on the internet but to get a real understanding I think you have to see these places with your own eyes….

I was a small boy with big hair when the Chernobyl disaster happen. I knew very little about it or the impact it had on Western Europe and the rest of the world. It wasn’t till I stumbled across the Kid of Speed website a few years ago that sparked my interest in Chernobyl.
Kid of Speed is about a girl who took her motorbike through the post apocalyptic landscape of Chernobyl and the surrounding area.

Sitting outside our hostel Guy and I waited for our tour guide to turn up. We were joined by two British guys who were working in Kiev and a father and daughter from the USA. We met our driver and Guide who worked for the Ukrainian Government and was once a scientists working on the Chernobyl power station after the disaster.
A two hours drive north of Kiev and we reach the first check point. A barrier across the road and army men stopping you going any further. As they check our passports and documentations it was a chance to stretch our legs and have a look around. This was the 30km radius checkpoint. From here the town of Chernobyl is 22km north. Hopping back in to the car the barrier is lifted and we go in to exclusion zone , there is an air of silence, something does not feel right, we start passing small villages which are barely visible as they have been reclaimed by the forest. Trees and bushes find themselves trying to escape from inside the buildings punching through the roofs and windows. Further along the main road which has pot holes the size of cars we pull in to the bustling town of Chernobyl.

Main Road

….. hang on? Chernobyl, busy? What’s going on here? Chernobyl Town is 11miles away from the power station and is the main hub for scientists, the army and workers that keep the town ticking over. I was rather surprised how busy it was watching people going in and out of the hotel and store (Which used to be the Cinema). After a quick brief about the effects that the radiation had on the surrounding landscape and the rest of Europe (I would bore you with the science but I’m sure if you Wikipedia it then you will get far more in depth info than I can tell you). I will say that our guide told us that they will never be able to build on the land again as the plutonium that pollutes the ground has a half life of 24,100 years.

Back in the car and a short drive to the north side of town to pay respects to the fire fighters who lost their lives fighting the fires at the power station minutes after the initial explosion.

Heather strikes a pose in front of the monument

Next stop is on to the power station itself. There are were four reactors that were operational before the disaster and another two that where being build and now lay abandoned. After September the 11th photography around the power station is forbidden which seems pointless as the whole area is on Google Map.

View Larger Map

Turning the corner we pass reactor 1 to 3 and then finally on to Reactor 4. I’m now standing 200 meters away from the reactor. 22 years after the explosion the Geiger Counter is showing 4 time the normal radiation.

Reactor 5 and 6

Reactor 4

Random Sam in front of the monument and Reactor 4

After a few photos it was time to leave the entrance to hell behind us and head to the Ghost Town of Pripyat. We pass the remains of the Red Forest where all the trees in this area turned a ginger-brown colour after absorbing high levels of radiation before dying a few weeks later. Today the forest is back to a ‘healthier’ shade of green and the only thing to show the old forest was there are mounds of concrete were the old pine trees were buried by the liquidators.

We pass over the railway bridge and our final check point to one of the most interesting places I’ve been too. The ghost town of Pripyat.
Pripyat was the town built for the workers of the power stations, it was named Pripyat after the river that runs next to it. Built in 1970 it has everything a communist could ever want in a modern city. Straight Roads, statues of Lenin and ugly soulless buildings. When the town was evacuated the residents were told that they were only going to be away for a maximum of 3 days and to only pack a few belongings. No one ever returned back to Pripyat and their belongings remain there rotting away.

Pripyat Sign

We stopped in the main square in front of the old KGB building. It looks straight out of a movie set or a video game, it really does look like it could be out of Resident Evil or Half Life (Update* They modelled the hospital in the first scene in Half Life 2 on the old hospital in Pripyat). We spent a few hours wondering in and out of different buildings. First was the hotel and is falling apart and gutted beyond belief but that doesn’t stop us all from climbing the stairwell to the presidential suite at the top of the building to get a birds eye view of the town. From the top you can see how the town is slowly decomposing with trees and bushes growing everywhere and ripping the buildings to bits, its a surreal place and looks almost like a toy town. In the distance you can see the power station looming over the town like an unfriendly neighbour 2 km away.

Stairwell of Hotel

Newspaper dated 24 April 1986, two days before the accidental

View from the presidential suite

Bedroom in the hotel

Our guide took us to one of the schools to have a nosey around. We wondered around the grounds and inside the classrooms, gym and the library. Books everywhere and I was quite surprised to see a rather a lot of English books.

The most recognised landmark when you think of Chernobyl is the fairest wheel in the main park.

Our guide pointed out these deadly mushrooms “These mushroom are only fit to eat by your mother in law” he said with a smurk. This was the only time he broke in to a smile.

We had a quick look around another school which was collapsing after years of being battered by the elements.

It was time to get back in the car and head back to the town of Chernobyl, on the way back we had a quick stop at the river where half sunken boats and barges are rusting away.

Warning Signs all over the place

And then on to view some of the vehicles the liquidators had to abandon after the clean up operation.

Back at the Chernobyl hotel and we had to do our first of two radiation tests that day. We had to stand on this old machine that looked like something straight out of a 50s comic book and place our hands inside the metal gloves. If the light turned green you were safe but if it stayed red…. well it was time for a chemical scrub.

After a great typical Ukrainian dinner of Borscht, meat and potatoes it was time to leave this incredible place. On the way back to the check point we passed a pack of wild horses that run freely in the exclusion zone. It was a pleasant thing to see life can recover after such a catastrophic event as Chernobyl.

At the check point we had one last radiation test. We all got the green light to go, the barrier at the check point was lifted and we were back in the real world heading to Kiev.

That’s my Chernobyl Tour over, I hope you found it as interesting as I did. It was one of the strangest and unsettling days of my life.

We went to Chernobyl with Solotravel. I can highly recommend them. Very professional and well worth the money. I think it cost us about £75 per person if there are six in the group.

Also, I would like to thank Guy for using his photos for this blog. I will post my photos in the next couple of weeks.

10 Responses to “Chernobyl Tour 2008”

1. Elle says:

   October 18, 2008 at 1:39 am

   Beautifully written sam. I loved it.
2. nova says:

   October 18, 2008 at 5:42 pm

   WOW
   i never thought i would want to go somewhere that you need 2 radiation tests to get out of, but now…maybe i do
3. Jo says:

   October 20, 2008 at 2:17 am

   Great photos! The one of the doll is sad (and a bit scary). I like the newspaper one and the low light one with the paper everywhere! You captured the mood well.
4. no nuclear says:

   November 21, 2008 at 12:15 am

   Hello. Please send me an email and tell me how can I go in this place! I must to pay something? How can I go? The risks? Please send me an email.
5. Nic Stage says:

   January 15, 2009 at 8:24 pm

   Thanks for relating your experience. Very interesting!
6. Malcolm Taylor (DJMX) says:

   November 27, 2009 at 12:39 pm

   I went to Chernobyl and Pripyat in October 2009 and got a few more pics as well. The links to my review, and pics are :

   Pictures : http://www.krisisdnb.com/event-gallery/mx-ukraine-belarus-and-chernobyl-october-2009

   Review : http://www.krisisdnb.com/content/mx-ukraine-belarus-and-chernobyl-october-2009

   Hope you enjoy !!!

   MX (Malcs)
7. roach sanderson says:

   June 18, 2010 at 6:55 pm

   in the game call of duty 4 2 men were in chernobyl and those pictures of that place the game was a true story then.
8. roach sanderson says:

   June 18, 2010 at 6:56 pm

   that place is fucken real in that game
9. Simon Redrup says:

   June 24, 2010 at 8:20 pm

   The thing with the tube on top is not a missile launcher .. it’s a vehicle designed to be able to drive across river beds, with that snorkel being the air intake for the engine and the occupants inside.
   I regularly visit this place, so trust me ;).
10. Holly says:

    December 14, 2010 at 3:09 pm

    I am looking into a summer trip to Chernobyl to take photos and learn about the accident that happened. It’s awful what happened but very fascinating at the same time. It sounds like it was an eye opening experience and I hope that before I leave Europe that I am able to share this experience as well.