Check out this website. It’s maintained by a 25 year old girl from Kiev, who’s hobby is… riding her Kawasaki Ninja through the dead zone of Chernobyl. :eek:
Her English is not perfect, but it’s a captivating story nonetheless. The pictures tell a thousand words - an entire part of a country deserted, caught in a late Communism time warp. She’s got a radiation meter on her to indicate how safe a place is. I have no idea what risks she’s taking, especially with doing this repeatedly, but I can certainly understand the appeal of such a deserted, creepy place. Don’t know if I’d dare venture THAT close to the reactor, though!!
What a kick-ass link Coldie, thanks for posting it. I forwarded it along to welbywife because she and the brats were both living near Chernobyl when it went over the edge. Today both she and the kids have thyroid problems thanks to the superior nuclear regulatory experience of the former Soviet Union. She’s got some pretty cool stories about that time in her life. Scary scary stuff.
Errr, for those reading along, before I butchered Ed’s post, he asked me if we were still on for that ride in Holland in a few weeks time. To which I wanted to reply: "Sure thing, Ed! E-mail me about the details. I bought a new PC and I think I’ve misplaced your old message, I’m afraid… ", but I accidentally hit “Edit” instead of “Quote”. Heh.
Just goes to show one has to use these powers carefully.
Good grief. This woman is insane. I can guarantee you, I would find it very difficult to smile for a photo sitting next to a dosimeter going “beep…beep…beepbeepbeep”.
I found that link on The Millenium Project site. That was very interesting. I think she’s nuts, but some of the pictures were stunning. I was astonished to see that ‘ordinary’ people are allowed in.
From the text, it seems she goes with some frequency to the exclusion zones (for the sake of fast biking), but has been reconsidering getting so close to the maximum-heat zones.
And yeah, dudes, she’s “hot”, and the bike is too, in more ways than one… only so much gallows humour you can bring to this one, I guess.
The awe of terrifying fascination. A place where history did end under a cloud of fallout.
There is an interesting book called The Sky Unwashed that tells the story of some of the older people of the Chernobyl region, the ones who wanted to return to live out their days at home.
The Pryzwalski horses blew me away.
BTW, they don’t let “regular” people in, really, she seems to have aquired a pass through her father who is a Nuclear Physicist.
Wow, that is amazing. I have never seen pictures of the actual reactor, and to see the state that it is in now… The pictures of the towns were stunning. Beautiful and sad and the same time.
Do they know what effect the radiation has had on the animals that are living there?
What a fascinating site and story. The picture of the tree growing in the middle of the room? The offhand mention of radioactive televisions showing up in black market stalls after having been removed from the danger area by looters? The room full of abandoned Soviet-era propaganda? I’m shuddering. Very, very evocative; very spooky.
