First Bicycle Trip to Exclusion Zone in Chernobyl
Exclusion Zone - Chernobyl
![First bicycle trip to Chernobyl...]()
Let's start from beginning. On a beautiful day in April we decided to go to place where no other bikers have been for almost 30 years - Ukraine's Chernobyl region, a radioactive exclusion zone. Maybe you remember 1986 when the city was evacuated after the Chernobyl disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The zone has been closed until this time. Only small groups of tourists can enter for touring, but it is under many restrictions. Also now, close to the Power Plant there are a lot of workers who are building a new sarcophagus to close the previously destroyed one. The zone is so big, about 30 km in each direction from the reactor. Along the border of the zone sit barbed wire and checking points. For normal citizens it is quite impossible to go there.
![First bicycle trip to Chernobyl...]()
We decided to go there with bikes to improve our mobility and also to make it a first in history. I have to warn you, because it wasn't an official trip, we didn't have any pass from the guards. That's why we were even more stoked.
Our trip started in Hubin, a village close to border of the zone. It had a lot of guards that day, so we decided to go to the opposite side of zone and start from there. About 23.00 we were alone somewhere near Maksymovici. In front of us was a bridge that was controlled periodically by guards.
![First bicycle trip to Chernobyl...]()
We were inside. We felt like children in a playground. There was another 35 km to the abandoned city of Prypiat where the rector was. It was a cold night and we were tired after travelling form Poland. We decided to take a couple hours nap, but keep off the ground as it may have much higher doses of radioactivity than other stuff.
![rest away form radioactivity...first bicycle trip to Chernobyl]()
Over the next few days we saw a lot of villages in the zone and Prypiat - the dead city. It looked so amazing. Travelling on bikes was wonderful, but only possible during the night to eliminate being caught by guards. It was like riding in your best trial but multiplied by 100. Nobody around, no small sounds, it was something special - a totally black sky with millions of stars around. It was gorgeous. Nature was also lush and clean not like in most of your spots.
![First bicycle trip to Chernobyl...]()
We wore camo clothes for our safety. Radioactivity in most of places was 100- 200 microR, similar to levels in Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine. But in some spots radioactivity reached a few thousand. It was a high dose but we didn't exceed the value which is unhealthy. I can't capture in words my emotions after this trip. Just have a look at photos.
![First bicycle trip to Chernobyl]()
![First bicycle trip to Chernobyl..]()
![First bicycle trip to Chernobyl...]()
![First bicycle trip to Chernobyl]()
![First bicycle trip to Chernobyl..]()
![First bicycle trip to Chernobyl...]()
![First bicycle trip to Chernobyl...]()
![First bicycle trip to Chernobyl...]()
![First bicycle trip to Chernobyl...]()
![First bicycle trip to Chernobyl...]()
![First bicyle trip to Chernobyl...]()
![First bicycle trip to Chernobyl..]()
![First bicycle trip to Chernobyl...]()
![First bicycle trip to Chernobyl...]()
![First bicycle trip to Chernobyl]()
We did it!!!
Yes it was amazing. All spots we planned to do we did. Through Prypiat, lots of villages, Red Forest and Duga radar. For sure I will visit there again...
Cheers Bartek
Let's start from beginning. On a beautiful day in April we decided to go to place where no other bikers have been for almost 30 years - Ukraine's Chernobyl region, a radioactive exclusion zone. Maybe you remember 1986 when the city was evacuated after the Chernobyl disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The zone has been closed until this time. Only small groups of tourists can enter for touring, but it is under many restrictions. Also now, close to the Power Plant there are a lot of workers who are building a new sarcophagus to close the previously destroyed one. The zone is so big, about 30 km in each direction from the reactor. Along the border of the zone sit barbed wire and checking points. For normal citizens it is quite impossible to go there.
We decided to go there with bikes to improve our mobility and also to make it a first in history. I have to warn you, because it wasn't an official trip, we didn't have any pass from the guards. That's why we were even more stoked.
Our trip started in Hubin, a village close to border of the zone. It had a lot of guards that day, so we decided to go to the opposite side of zone and start from there. About 23.00 we were alone somewhere near Maksymovici. In front of us was a bridge that was controlled periodically by guards.
We were inside. We felt like children in a playground. There was another 35 km to the abandoned city of Prypiat where the rector was. It was a cold night and we were tired after travelling form Poland. We decided to take a couple hours nap, but keep off the ground as it may have much higher doses of radioactivity than other stuff.
Over the next few days we saw a lot of villages in the zone and Prypiat - the dead city. It looked so amazing. Travelling on bikes was wonderful, but only possible during the night to eliminate being caught by guards. It was like riding in your best trial but multiplied by 100. Nobody around, no small sounds, it was something special - a totally black sky with millions of stars around. It was gorgeous. Nature was also lush and clean not like in most of your spots.
We wore camo clothes for our safety. Radioactivity in most of places was 100- 200 microR, similar to levels in Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine. But in some spots radioactivity reached a few thousand. It was a high dose but we didn't exceed the value which is unhealthy. I can't capture in words my emotions after this trip. Just have a look at photos.
We did it!!!
Yes it was amazing. All spots we planned to do we did. Through Prypiat, lots of villages, Red Forest and Duga radar. For sure I will visit there again...
Cheers Bartek
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Kinda - Never use american dollars because of that massonic eye-in-triangle.
What's worse ?
Narrator: Martha Stewart.
Tyler Durden: f*ck Martha Stewart. Martha's polishing the brass in Chernobyl. It's all going down, man. So f*ck off with your sofa units and Strinne green stripe patterns.
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s4.pikabu.ru/post_img/big/2014/09/13/7/1410601570_802840160.jpg
This type of trip ain't my cup of tea but I'm clad you shared your experience with us..
Would love to go there one day. (Weird as it sounds)
Here are my pics if you want to have a look. plus.google.com/photos/100166396497655933083/albums/5503053131763772881
Can you tell me how high the radiation was in the red forest? Because I heard it's one of the most contaminated areas in the world...!?
i'm not that familiar with these units, sorry...
Actually I'm in Kyiv, Ukraine.
There is no radioactivity of such levels here at least for NOW - for sure.
That's totall lie. Bullsh*t.
In 30km zone around Chernobyl it can be and is because of that catastrophe of USSR times.
But the radioactivity lowers as the time goes. And now it is almost safe to be there, as one can see - even the some tourists are get there.
So there is really nothing to fear there besides may be guards because officially it is not for tourists still.
If some so brave bikers want to get the real shit in their bike shorts and see real war crazyness - just go to the east of our country: Donetsk, Luhansk regions.
Even these days crazy terrorists with the help of russian army, chechen fighters and other Putin's bitches still do their f..ng job there.
It is not funny at all. No f..ng way.
@DHMF France is the world leader in Nuclear power and as such generates some of the lowest emissions in the world. It may seem antiquated but it's still one of the cleanest and most power dense forms of power known to us. Until we ride the Fusion train to awesomeland. Also, any type of Hydrodynamic/wind/solar/geothermal power is going to be geographically limited. Thus, isn't the answer for every utility. However, if you have an area that can support it and the economics works out, do it up.
I'm still hoping that either the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation figures out how to burn spent fuel or Fusion power becomes a real thing for longer than nano-seconds.
Anyways, I think we come to Pinkbike to not think..........about these things.
Some of that is speculation that you cannot possibly know.
And the test if it is a nicely delivered trend of information that is intended to have you believe what someone wants you to believe.
There are experts that will contradict what you've said in response to me.
Furthermore.
We walk around with cellular phones right next to our balls all day.
But someone's always gonna blame nuclear radiation instead of many other factors.
Just because America doesn't want anyone going down the nuclear road. So their unrivalled in their ability to f*ck the world up.
Now let me tell you this:
It doesn't f*cking matter in the slightest if France is the world leader in Nuclear power as most of the power plants are much older than you. The plant in Fessenheim, which is just a few miles away from where I live by the way, was planned in 1969, which is 15 years before you were even born. I'm talking about a world in which cigarettes still weren't considered unhealthy and AIDS was still more than a decade away from being discovered. Do you even know how computer technology looked like back then? Hell, most people didn't even have a color TV, back then! Your f*cking smartphone in your little jeans pocket has more information processing capacity than that whole nuclear power plant! Besides, Fessenheim is known for having had several malfunctions during its service life by now and if it wasn't for Fukushima it would have continued to run through 2025. And the fact, that this thing is in such proximity to the German border does surely make it a supranational concern, despite all respect for France's ingenuity. It would not make sense to say it should be disabled immediately, as it would have to run for several years to come anyway, no matter if feeding the grid or not - but still, it should be disabled as soon as possible!
Also, it's the nuclear power lobby that wants you to believe, that there are no green alternatives to accomodate the demand of electricity, but really, there is.
Having said that, the problem about nuclear power is not, that it doesn't give clean and dense energy, but how to dispose of the atomic waste. Like @B650wagon already stated very accurately, those things have been providing energy since the 50's and still there is not a single person walking the surface of this earth who has a f*cking clue how to deal with its toxic waste.
It's kinda like taking 1 Gallon of water and start walking across the Sahara thinking there will be a way to stay hydrated. Ridiculous.
Without any doubt, it is technically feasible by now to meet the power demand relying on renewable energy sources, but it was for political and economical reasons, that the interest in proceeding this direction was being inhibited for decades.
To be clear, I nowhere stated, that I'm the guy who has all the answers to the worlds' problems, in fact, I'm just the guy who states the obvious, namely that we have NO answers to the Nuclear waste problem.
But one thing is certain: If the same amount of money that was put into Nuclear research, would've been invested into renewable energies, we weren't even to have this conversation right now.
Regarding the bunkers, I just don't believe they are going to hold up for the necessary 1 million years to come.
Just do the maths... service life of maybe 20 years (?) versus problems for 1.000.000 years... I don't see this trade-off having an appropriate relation. Especially since it's impossible for humans to plan within that kind of time frame.
I'm all for fusion and new tech, but we have to be smart with hippie ideas as they may stop it from happening... a thing that is not told to us by politicians using hippie and hipster slogans is that if we were to do everything they say we shoukld in order to be moral beings: stop driving cars, stop buying sht we don't need, stop eating meat, no nuclear, all toghether - we'd have to dramatically, I mean dramatically, drop our standard of living. That involves "African" health care. Hipsters don't get it. They want beatiful world without all those things yet they think they will still sip soy latte, take pictures of benches with old Leica and post stupid stuff on Facebook on their smart phone while listening to vinyls
it is cool to see what it looks like today though
If you want some risky activity go to the Rampage site and scare yourself riding any line. But putting yourself at risk for being arrested (which is fine) and worse off exposing yourself to radiation like that seems unreasonable.