I always wanted to visit Chernobyl, even before the hit HBO series (I swear). In 2019 I crossed that off my bucket list. Closed and highly guarded Exclusion Zone can be visited only with tour guide, I went with official chernobyltour.com and was very pleased with organization and guides. You can also take private tour guide and can choose between one- three- or seven-day visit. I’m sure you all know a lot about the disaster because of the series so I’m going to focus on my own personal experience.
We hoped on the bus in Kiev and after one-hour drive, we came to Checkpoint Dytyatky. Soldiers with big guns and serious looks on their faces checked our passports and electronic tickets, then we drove to abandoned small village called Zalissya. 3000 people lived in villages around the Zone and half of them returned after the disaster. Today around 150 villagers still live in their homes, mostly they die from the old age (not cancer as you may think), average age is 80 years. You can explore the houses alone, but you need to be careful, floors and ceilings are in many places collapsing.
Next stop was ghost town Pripyat. Sort of promised land before the disaster now looks more like forest. Life found its way through the asphalt and you cannot even see the buildings from narrow path which used to be main road. Officially is prohibited to go inside the buildings but some tour guides bent the rules a bit. You just need to be careful, there is glass everywhere and floors are collapsing. All that is left is more or less garbage. The soldiers and later (when the Zone wasn’t guarded from the north) civilians robbed the cities and villages and sold stuff across the Soviet Union. Not so fun fact that some of that stuff was highly radioactive and people had that in their homes. What was left and radioactive is buried across the zone.
We drove over the so-called Bridge of death, which is totally made up according to our guide. People didn’t come to watch the fire from reactor, because they didn’t even hear the explosion. On the bridge there was only few people, who were there randomly and they didn’t die because of that.
Next stop was lunch. The most exciting part is that you eat with workers that still work at nuclear plant. Around 2000 people still works there. After we left the cantina, we were checked for radiation for the first time. Easier then go through the airport security.
Next stop was Radar-Duga-1. Secret military base was closed zone till 2014. Two huge antennas never actually worked, because the Chernobyl disaster. Radar was used for scanning USA for possible missiles launches. Forest around was planted so the antennas remained hidden. Road was closed with the sign for children summer camp and with fake bus station making camp more believable.
We drove around the reactors and had a quick stop near the sarcophagus where is allowed to take pictures (only in one direction). Next stop was town Chernobyl where the workers live for 15 days, then they have to move outside of the Zone. The statue is nod to unnamed heroes: firefighters, doctors and all the people who cleaned consequences of the disaster (between 500 000 and 900 000 people).
On the way back, we were checked for radioactivity twice and our bus once. If it happens that bus doesn’t pass the check, they wash it, if its still not ok driver must simply live it there. Yeah they are careful. But after the disaster buses used for evacuation of Pripyat, were used in Kiev for another week before they were removed from the traffic. If you don’t pass, you must take off your shoes, even take a shower and in worst case scenario go to the hospital. Guides said that nothing ever happened. I think that the problems can only happen with the workers.
In one day, we got 0,002 microsievert of radiation. That is same as you get in hour flight or in one day in Kiev. X-ray is 150 times worse. 20 bananas expose the same radiation in one day. The visit is not dangerous at all, but you must have long sleeves and pants, closed shoes just in case. You can not sit on the floor or walk on soil. Wood and soil are the most contaminated.
All in all, the whole experience was one of the most interesting things in my life and I hope to go back for 3 or 7 days trip to see even more of the area. If you want to go there I recommend that you hurry, buildings are already in bad shape. It’s only a matter of time when the whole Zone would become only one giant pile of ruins.
Andreja Pongračič 