After years of talking about it we finally made it to Chernobyl!
It’s a couple hours drive from Kiev to the Exclusion Zone and once inside you have to stick to the strict guidelines.
As we drove up it was completely out of view of the road hidden in the forest and the end of the track had the bus stop painted with children’s to disguise it as a children’s summer camp.
on the left, covered in the sarcophagus, is Reactor 4 where the 1986 accident happened, next to that is Reactor 3 and on the right either side of the chimney are 1 & 2.
After lunch we visited Pripyat, the modern city built for the power plant workers which at the time was a really desirable place to live with nice apartments, shops, many schools and recreational facilities.
The most interesting thing was to stand on a spot where photos were taken at the time and compare it to now. Nature had completely taken over with trees and plants everywhere which largely disorientate you.
Several of the buildings have collapsed which is why tourists aren’t allowed inside, though we did go inside a few and there are plans to make some save to visit in the future.
One of the most famous spots is the Chernobyl Fairground which had only just been finished before the accident happened.
Aside from nature taking over there are also lots of animals living in the exclusion zone.
Interestingly most of the adult dogs were only 4 or 5 years old with no older dogs around, maybe because of human population control or due to radiation?
There are a few companies offering day trips from
Kiev, we booked with Chornobyl Tours and had a great guide so I’d recommend going with them. The tour starts early to make sure you have a full day at the site.
It’s a couple hours drive from Kiev to the Exclusion Zone and once inside you have to stick to the strict guidelines.
We hired a Geiger counter for the day which measures radiation - average background radiation in Kiev is about 0.7mSv/hour and the highest we saw was close to 100mSv/hour.
One of th first things we saw was the Duga 2 Radar which is 150m high, built in secret by the Soviets.
As we drove up it was completely out of view of the road hidden in the forest and the end of the track had the bus stop painted with children’s to disguise it as a children’s summer camp.
I guess in those days you accepted it and didn’t ask questions for fear of being shot!
Driving up to the reactors you start to get a scale of the place
on the left, covered in the sarcophagus, is Reactor 4 where the 1986 accident happened, next to that is Reactor 3 and on the right either side of the chimney are 1 & 2.
The other side of the cooling water lake are Reactors 5 & 6 which we’re being built and never completed, with plans for 12 reactors on the site.
We ate lunch in the canteen just to the right of that photo, a Ukranian feast, most of which we couldn’t finish.
After lunch we visited Pripyat, the modern city built for the power plant workers which at the time was a really desirable place to live with nice apartments, shops, many schools and recreational facilities.
The entire city was evacuated within days of the nuclear accident and has to remain uninhabited for 20,000 years due to nuclear radiation.
The most interesting thing was to stand on a spot where photos were taken at the time and compare it to now. Nature had completely taken over with trees and plants everywhere which largely disorientate you.
Several of the buildings have collapsed which is why tourists aren’t allowed inside, though we did go inside a few and there are plans to make some save to visit in the future.
One of the most famous spots is the Chernobyl Fairground which had only just been finished before the accident happened.
Aside from nature taking over there are also lots of animals living in the exclusion zone.
We met lots of dogs who mainly hung around busy places like checkpoints and the canteen as people feed and look after them.
Interestingly most of the adult dogs were only 4 or 5 years old with no older dogs around, maybe because of human population control or due to radiation?
A friend visited over summer to help vaccinate and neuter the dogs so it would be awesome to come back and help with that.
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