Report: Pripayt / Chernobyl 2008

0ubliette

Ive posted this on one or two of my favourite gaming forums, but figured id post it here too. My adventures in Pripyat!

So heres my trip to Chernobyl in pictures.
The trip was booked with http://www.tourchernobyl.com. I just emailed info@tourkiev.com, and got in touch with the guy who runs the whole place, Sergei. Really, really helpful guy who talked me through the whole process and answered numerous dumbass emails i sent him. You can book everything through them, from the flights (cost me about 500 euro) to hotel (160 euro for 2 nights), to a pickup at the airport and dropoff when leaving ($40 each).



First off we need to give props to our guide, Yuri. Yuri has worked in the zone for about 8 years now, i doubt theres many people who know the zone as well as he does.
The tour kicks off with him telling us about the zone, how polluted it still is (or isnt, in some areas)


Just outside Yuris headquarters is the monument to the firemen who died after the explosion. The monument was erected by the firemen themselves. After the explosion, firemen raced to the plant withihn 2 minutes of hearing the alarm, unknowingly exposing themselves to lethal doses of radiation.


We stop not far from the firemans memorial, at the remains of a tiny village. The village was destroyed, and then buried under orders from the soviets for being too radiactive. The geiger counter here doesnt show much radiation, Yuri believes it was buried out of the soviets desire to cover up the accident more than anything else. Ironically, the name of the village translated to english is called 'diggers', kinda prophetic really.




The sign for the 'diggers' village



Just across the road from the ex-village, Yuri points out a radar station just past the treeline. Its an abandoned military base that was used to detect incoming missiles, and for general spying on America. Aparrently, it shows up on old maps as 'pioneers camp'. We move on, closer to the plant now.



A mile or two down the road, and we get our first glimpse of the plant. Reactor 4 (left) is the one that blew up, the reactor on the right was under construction at the time, and was never finished. The geiger counter is beeping stronger here.



Its reading 0.139 Roentgens, and by the time we picked it up out of the grass, it had gone up to .2, and was climbing. Its still nowhere near being lethal, but put it this way, you wouldnt want to stretch out on the grass for the afternoon. The grass is deadly around here, the asphalt was fine however! It doesnt absorb radiation like the soil did.



Further down the road, and we get our first proper view of the reactor. Its a pretty awe (or fear) inspiring sight, and the people on the tour are getting alot quieter, and maybe a bit more nervous now. The only sound you can hear is the geiger counter beeping faster & faster. WE scramble back into the van and head off, directly to the plant.



This is just outside the plant. Everyone was wondering what in gods name this is supposed to be til Yuri told us...go on, guess what it is is. Got it yet?

Its a...

Its a......

Its a dove with an atom in its mouth! Yeah, we couldnt guess either.



This is a memorial to the first people to die from the explosion. Most of them died shortly afterwards, but 3rd right from the center (i think) was the first guy to die, whos body is still in the plant, under the sarcopagus somewhere.



Were directly in front of the sarcophagus now. The geiger counter is going mental. Its getting unnerving at this stage. Stand here for too long, and youll be going home with a healthy green glow. Some dumbass takes off his hat and puts it on the ground while he poses for a picture, Yuri almost kills him. 'DONT PUT STUFF ON THE GROUND!!!'. Dumbass.

0ubliette

We move on, now were at the Red Forest. So called because on the night of the accident, the whole forest glowed red. The forest was cut down, and buried under 6 meteres (or feet, im not sure) of earth. The only problem being, the trees they planted on top of them, are now dragging the radiation up through their roots, meaning radiation here is going UP instead of down. This is one of the most toxic places on earth.

And behind us is a roadsign that fills me with both excitement, and dread:



Pripyat.



Rush hour traffic on the road to Pripyat.



Were standing on the 'bridge of death' here. So called because on the day of the explosion, people gathered on this bridge to see the beautiful rainbow coloured flames of the burning graphite nuclear core, whose flames were higher than the smoke stack itself. They were all exposed to levels of over 500 roentgens, a fatal dose.



We drive on, and enter Pripyat town.



And here it is! The finest hotel in all of Pripyat. At least it was, back in 1986.
Were going right to the top of it, Yuri tells us. **** YES!!



Graffiti in pripyat is probably the most bone chilling graffiti ive ever seen.



Check in desk. business is a little slow, noones checked in in almost 23 years.



Someone forgot their newspaper.



I ducked away from the tour for a minute to check out some of the hotel rooms. One room still had its bed, and wardrobe, and someone left their slippers behind.



Almostat the top..



The view from the top of the hotel. Theres broken glass everywhere in Pripyat, not just cause of vandalism, but also down to the fact that all the windows had to be left open in the town, to stop pockets of radiation collecting indoors.

0ubliette

Another view from the hotel roof. The building on the left is the palace of culture. Were heading there shortly.









On our way to the palace of culture now. Its not advisable to sit on these chairs for too long, if you value having working balls.





Inside the palace of culture...where some mong stuck his head in my photo.



The sun shining through a hole in the roof makes an excellent spotlight, on a stage that hasnt seen a performance in almost 23 years.




We quite literally exit stage right, and head around the back of the palace of culture. Apartment blocks in Pripyat still bear all the signs of being a former soviet state, the hammer and sickle is everywhere.


All this stuff in behind the stage in the palace of culture. I think it was due to be used in the labour day parade that year, but it never came.





Yuri tells us were moving on to the amusement park, i can literally feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.


Yuri puts the geiger counter down on a patch of moss in front of the amusement park, and it goes absolutely ballistic. I think it went up to a full 2 roentgens. 500 roentgens is fatal, 200 would put you int he hospital for a long time, 2 isnt going to kill you, but you sure as hell dont want to go walking on this patch of moss, put it that way. Youd beep so much going through decontamination theyd probably take you for a chemical shower.

0ubliette

The amusement park was setup for the kids for the may day parade (i think it was may day, i could be wrong tho). But for Pripyat, time stopped on April 26th, and may day never came.



And then here it is, the infamous star of the show, the Pripyat eye. In Ukranian, its known as the 'devils wheel'.






From here, were moving on to the swimming pool.


Lenin puts in another appearance


Inside the sports centre.


Pripyat was a real jewel in the crown for the soviets. And seeing the swimming pool here its easy to see why, its not hard to imagine olympic athletes training here, for the 70's/80's, this place must've been the best around. The pool is HUGE.

0ubliette

Were moving on to the final part of the tour, and probably the part that brings home just what a tragedy this really was. Suddenly im feeling like i really shouldnt be enjoying this. I feel like one of those rubberneckers who slows down at the scene of an accident to get a good gawp in. We're going back to school.


Walking under the archway into the schoolyard.


The kids playground is barely visible through the trees that've grown up around it. I dont think the rest of the pictures need captions.





















Thanks for reading!

And a youtube video i uploaded

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRewxKvj4Ig

BuffyBot

Wow - excellent!

Thanks for uploading all of that!

0ubliette

no problem, glad you liked it

uglyjohn

thanks for posting that. its amazing how similar some of your shots look to stalker.

0ubliette

uglyjohn wrote: »

thanks for posting that. its amazing how similar some of your shots look to stalker.

Having been to Ukraine now, i can honestly say that GSC did an absolutely fantastic job of capturing the look and feel of the place, it was uncanny at times

Phototoxin

Those are amazing photos!

Mr. CooL ICE

Holy sh**, that looks crazy. I always wondered what it would be like to visit there now. Thanks for the photos

PogMoThoin

Thanks for that, I really enjoyed these, its a tour I'd love to take myself.

Stephen

Just saw the link to this thread in your sig this evening, absolutely fascinating. Thanks for uploading all those photos.

nacl

Grim reminder. Thanks.

kensutz

Thanks for the pics. I could head to Vasilivichi with work but they won't allow me to head out yet until I have a family etc for fear of sterilisation from the radiation. Our company run donates a few euro from each employee each week to help fund their orphanages and eye care facilities.

here.from.day.1

Great stuff, thanks for putting that up.

Eoin

Great thread. It reminds me of this lady who did a motorcycle tour of the place.

Silenceisbliss

that was amazing! really really interesting I must say!

Id say the atmosphere there can be pretty unnerving.

goes to show what a good job stalker and cod4 did aswell.

eVeNtInE

This post has been deleted.

Carroller16

COD 4 in the flesh... amazing

0ubliette

Thanks everyone
I actually made a new video there a few weeks ago. Its a few pics and stuff i didnt use in my first film, mixed with some old photos of the town when it was inhabited....its really not that different than my first one but i was feeling creative and wanted to make a new film!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8mBS6Ihn1M

Dublingirl23

Thanks for sharing these incredible pics

Loved them all! :D:D

DumDum

I think you are nuts going there

here.from.day.1

DumDum wrote: »

I think you are nuts going there

Id think your nuts not going when the opportunity to do so safely is there.

DumDum

How do you know it is safe? Are you an expert on radiation? You are trusting someone else's opinion and quite frankly when it comes to somethign as serious as that I would rather just leave it and go to a beach somewhere

questioner

absolutely fantastic post, adding it to the list of places i've to visit. by the way, did you go on your own or was there someone with you? and as for the beach comment? off you go son, turn lobster red, drink cheap beer, get sneered at by the locals and dont forget to expand your mind while you're there as well

here.from.day.1

DumDum wrote: »

How do you know it is safe? Are you an expert on radiation? You are trusting someone else's opinion and quite frankly when it comes to somethign as serious as that I would rather just leave it and go to a beach somewhere

Im not an expert but I think the whole radiation subject is something scientists have looked at. :rolleyes: Perhaps safely was not the best choice of words but anyway back off to the stone age with you captain paranoid.

0ubliette

questioner wrote: »

absolutely fantastic post, adding it to the list of places i've to visit. by the way, did you go on your own or was there someone with you? and as for the beach comment? off you go son, turn lobster red, drink cheap beer, get sneered at by the locals and dont forget to expand your mind while you're there as well

Well i flew on my own, which was a bit scary as flying somewhere like Ukraine isnt exactly like taking a weekend break to France. I literally had 2 flights cancelled, 1 flight delayed, was over 8 hours late, got 3 hours sleep before the tour, but it was worth every single bit of hassle!
The trip itself there were 10 of us altogether, met outside my hotel, jumped in a shuttle bus and its a few hours drive to Chernobyl from Kiev.

And DumDum, the levels of radiation are safe for exposure of a few hours, youd be exposed to the exact same levels of radiation on a 5 hour commercial flight apparently.

allybhoy

Fascinating read mate, fair play! Ive played Stalker and COD4 so when i seen those pix i was like wow!

oldjoe

0ubliette wrote: »

Well i flew on my own, which was a bit scary as flying somewhere like Ukraine isnt exactly like taking a weekend break to France. I literally had 2 flights cancelled, 1 flight delayed, was over 8 hours late, got 3 hours sleep before the tour, but it was worth every single bit of hassle!
The trip itself there were 10 of us altogether, met outside my hotel, jumped in a shuttle bus and its a few hours drive to Chernobyl from Kiev.

And DumDum, the levels of radiation are safe for exposure of a few hours, youd be exposed to the exact same levels of radiation on a 5 hour commercial flight apparently.

Hey 0ubliette,

I came across your Chernobyl post by accident. Chernobyl has actually been one of the places I have been wanting to visit for some time, but didn't actually consider it until now. Me and my friend are playing with the idea of going there.

10 people on one tour sounds great (EDIT: Do you have a choice to go just two or in a bigger group, depending on price?). I was first thinking there would be 50 noisy people, but that amount sounds nice! How much time do you spend on the bus compared to walking around?

I already started doing my research for the trip; For those concerned about radiation, read these:

http://www.carlmontgomery.com/radiation/
http://emergency.cdc.gov/radiation/measurement.asp (scroll down to the bottom to 'Common Radiation Exposures')

Mike 1972

Two questions:

Why the gas masks/pictures of gas masks in the schools ? Was this some kind of disaster plan they had (limited benefit but better than nothing) 1980's civil defence measure (The USSR were considered better prepared in this regard than most western countries) or was it just a bit of WW2 history teaching ?

Secondly although the levels of radiation may not present much risk for visitors (due to the limited time spent there) what about the tour guides :eek:

Chairman Meow

Mike 1972 wrote: »

Two questions:

Why the gas masks/pictures of gas masks in the schools ? Was this some kind of disaster plan they had (limited benefit but better than nothing) 1980's civil defence measure (The USSR were considered better prepared in this regard than most western countries) or was it just a bit of WW2 history teaching ?

Secondly although the levels of radiation may not present much risk for visitors (due to the limited time spent there) what about the tour guides :eek:

Yeah i think its some kind of "duck and cover" style emergency procedure for the schoolkids to follow.

No idea about #2, youd have to ask them!

jgjkl

.

Wolfe Tone

Fantastic stuff. Every time I see a thread like this I wish I was arsed to use a camera or buy one.

Straycat

fab post, only seen it now. did anyone see the documentary last week or the week before (not sure but it was a thurs) on rte about that town and the ecosystem that exists there now, it was fantastic.

Zebra3

Intersting stuff.

Anyone into that I recommend they read Dom Joly's The Dark Tourist. Great read and it covers Chernobyl too.

Tech3

This is probably one of the greatest threads ever on this forum, I wonder how safe a trip to Chernobyl would be? I know the sarcophagus is guaranteed for another decade but it would be highly dangerous if anything were to happen to it when you walk up outside the plant.

ríomhaire

I don't know if I should be bumping this but I'd just like to say I love the photos. I've never really had that urge to travel. Seeing the world is not high on my priorities list, but I do want to see Pripyat in person before I die.