Driving through Russia, to Ukraine to visit Chernobyl; Tips?

[Vkmies]

Ohai, Escapist!

It has been a lifelong dream of mine and many of my friends. And now that I have time and the possibility of doing it with some of the best friends I have ever had, I will do everything in my power to make it happen. Been talking with touring companies, checking visas, passports and insurances and it really looks like it might actually happen. I couldn't be more excited.

We will be doing this in the summer, probably in late June or early July, because that's when the whole gang is on vacation anyways. We live in Turku, south-western Finland and are planning to take my car, drive past Helsinki, cross the border to Russia and continue our way south to Ukraine. Probably through/past St. Petersburg, taking the highways. We'll probably end up staying one night in Russia.

Then crossing the border to Ukraine, driving west to Kiev and staying there. That's where most of the possible touring companies arrange their tours. Stay a few days, check out Chernobyl and Pripyat, get all kinds of cancers, come back home, die a happy, but painful death. Really, it's kind of a really elaborate suicide plan.

Anyway: Ask questions if you are wondering about something and I will answer to the best of my abilities.

If you are familiar with Finland/Russia or Russia/Ukraine border-crossing, staying in Russia, staying in Ukraine or visiting Chernobyl, I would be oh-so very thankful for any tips or tricks you can provide.

Thanks guys!

 

[Fappy]

I don't live anywhere near there so I can't really offer advice, but that sounds like an awesome road trip! I'd assume summer's the best time to drive through Russia XD

 

[Vkmies]

I don't live anywhere near there so I can't really offer advice, but that sounds like an awesome road trip! I'd assume summer's the best time to drive through Russia XD

Heck yeah! Just cruising on the highway with some friends through rural Russia sounds like a dream, eh? Just kinda worried that since you need to wear long-sleeved shirts, proper pants, closed shoes and preferably socks, hat and gloves in chernobyl/pripyat (All the radiation, see) it might get suuuuuuper hot there. Hope there is a touch of wind and clouds. Just so we don't die before all the cancer hits. It's like a 12 hour tour or whatever. Might get hot.

 

[Fappy]

I don't live anywhere near there so I can't really offer advice, but that sounds like an awesome road trip! I'd assume summer's the best time to drive through Russia XD

Heck yeah! Just cruising on the highway with some friends through rural Russia sounds like a dream, eh? Just kinda worried that since you need to wear long-sleeved shirts, proper pants, closed shoes and preferably socks, hat and gloves in chernobyl/pripyat (All the radiation, see) it might get suuuuuuper hot there. Hope there is a touch of wind and clouds. Just so we don't die before all the cancer hits. It's like a 12 hour tour or whatever. Might get hot.

It's a 12 hour tour?! Holy shit! There's really that much to see there?

 

[Vkmies]

I don't live anywhere near there so I can't really offer advice, but that sounds like an awesome road trip! I'd assume summer's the best time to drive through Russia XD

Heck yeah! Just cruising on the highway with some friends through rural Russia sounds like a dream, eh? Just kinda worried that since you need to wear long-sleeved shirts, proper pants, closed shoes and preferably socks, hat and gloves in chernobyl/pripyat (All the radiation, see) it might get suuuuuuper hot there. Hope there is a touch of wind and clouds. Just so we don't die before all the cancer hits. It's like a 12 hour tour or whatever. Might get hot.

It's a 12 hour tour?! Holy shit! There's really that much to see there?

Hell, more! Pripyat *is* an entire city, no?
Well, it's not really 12 hours. But almost, if you count all the sitting in the bus!
Here's the schedule of the tour we are planning to take.

We usually start our Chernobyl tour
at 9 a.m.

SoloEast's staff will meet you at the departure point, check passports, dress code, etc. If you need to be picked up at your location we can do that too - just let us know.

Drive to Chernobyl with passing Dytyatky checkpoint (on the border of the 30-km Exclusion Zone). We show you an informative and stunning documentary you'll like during a 2-hour ride.

Entry to the 30km Exclusion Zone. Meeting the leadership of Chernobylinterinform Agency.

Arrival to Chernobyl. Introductory briefing on the Exclusion Zone administrative division and regulations, RAW disposal, etc.

Sightseeing Chernobyl town: Wormwood Star memorial, St. Ilya Church, Memorial ?To Those who Saved the World?, photo stop at the place with robots and vehicles used to clean the radioactive fallout.

Entry to the 10 km Zone by passing Leliv checkpoint.

On the way to the Power Plant we stop at almost fully buried Kopachi village and check the kindergarten which we can still enter.

Feeding catfish and ide in the cooling channel around the Power Plant (if it is warm enough).

Sightseeing Reactor #4 from a 300 m distance.

Stop near the Red Forest.

Sightseeing Pripyat town: Lenin Street, the palace of culture, Polissya hotel, supermarket; Ferris wheel, the stadium, school, swimming pool and the hospital.

NO ENTRY INSIDE THE BUILDINGS DUE TO THE SAFETY REASONS.

Lunch at the Power Plant canteen- all ingredients are brought from the outside and ecologically clean. A vegetarian meal is available upon request.

Visiting Paryshiv village, meeting the self-settlers (people who chose to come back to their homes after the evacuation (optional).
Important - Rossokha village (contaminated vehicles graveyard) - ACCESS FORBIDDEN BY THE GOVERNMENT FROM APRIL 2008.
Passage through Dytyatki checkpoint. Compulsory radiation control.
Return to Kiev around 6 p.m.




So all in all, it rounds out to about 9 hours of sitting in a bus or walking through radiation and what I can only expect, huge super mutants trying to find their way back to The Master.

 

[Jamash]

The only advice I can think of is make sure you're in a good, strong, safe car with good tyres and brakes, make sure your reaction times and evasive driving skills are up to par, and also make sure you've got a good car insurance policy with international coverage that's paid up.


Investing in a dashboard video camera may be a good idea too... the reason should be obvious from the video.

 

[Rawne1980]

Yeah, don't get anything pregnant.

Unless you want kids with webbed toes, 2 heads, 4 legs and a tongue longer than your forearm.

Also, make sure you dress for the weather in Chernobyl..... Here is something I think is fashionable for the area.....

Spoiler

 

[Frezzato]

Ohai, Escapist!

It has been a lifelong dream of mine and many of my friends...crossing the border to Ukraine, driving west to Kiev and staying there....

What an incredible opportunity! Many years ago I ran across the site of Elena Filatova, aka the Kidd of Speed. She rides her motorcycle through the Chernobyl areas. Here's a sample off her site:

[HEADING=2]Roentgens[/HEADING]

To begin our journey, we must learn a little something about radiation. It is really very simple, and the device we use for measuring radiation levels is called a geiger counter . If you flick it on in Kiev, it will measure about 12-16 microroentgen per hour. In a typical city of Russia and America, it will read 10-12 microroentgen per hour. In the center of many European cities are 20 microR per hour, the radioactivity of the stone.

1,000 microroentgens equal one milliroentgen and 1,000 milliroentgens equal 1 roentgen. So one roentgen is 100,000 times the average radiation of a typical city. A dose of 500 roentgens within 5 hours is fatal to humans. Interestingly, it takes about 2 1/2 times that dosage to kill a chicken and over 100 times that to kill a cockroach.

This sort of radiation level can not be found in Chernobyl now. In the first days after explosion, some places around the reactor were emitting 3,000-30,000 roentgens per hour. The firemen who were sent to put out the reactor fire were fried on the spot by gamma radiation. The remains of the reactor were entombed within an enormous steel and concrete sarcophagus, so it is now relatively safe to travel to the area - as long as we do not step off of the roadway.......

It shows various levels of radiation on asphalt - usually on the middle of road - because at edge of the road it is twice as high. If you step 1 meter off the road it is 4 or 5 times higher. Radiation sits on the soil, on the grass, in apples and mushrooms. It is not retained by asphalt, which makes rides through this area possible.

I have never had problems with the dosimeter guys, who man the checkpoints. They are experts, and if they find radiation on you vehicle, they give it a chemical shower. I don't count those couple of times when "experts" tried to invent an excuse to give me a shower, because those had a lot more to do with physical biology than biological physics.

Her new site: http://www.elenafilatova.com/

Her old site: http://www.kiddofspeed.com/

-
I really like her, especially for what she does. Read this page [http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/afterword.html] and you get an idea why.

 

[TheIronRuler]

Ohai, Escapist!

It has been a lifelong dream of mine and many of my friends. And now that I have time and the possibility of doing it with some of the best friends I have ever had, I will do everything in my power to make it happen. Been talking with touring companies, checking visas, passports and insurances and it really looks like it might actually happen. I couldn't be more excited.

We will be doing this in the summer, probably in late June or early July, because that's when the whole gang is on vacation anyways. We live in Turku, south-western Finland and are planning to take my car, drive past Helsinki, cross the border to Russia and continue our way south to Ukraine. Probably through/past St. Petersburg, taking the highways. We'll probably end up staying one night in Russia.

Then crossing the border to Ukraine, driving west to Kiev and staying there. That's where most of the possible touring companies arrange their tours. Stay a few days, check out Chernobyl and Pripyat, get all kinds of cancers, come back home, die a happy, but painful death. Really, it's kind of a really elaborate suicide plan.

Anyway: Ask questions if you are wondering about something and I will answer to the best of my abilities.

If you are familiar with Finland/Russia or Russia/Ukraine border-crossing, staying in Russia, staying in Ukraine or visiting Chernobyl, I would be oh-so very thankful for any tips or tricks you can provide.

Thanks guys!

.
Be very fucking careful on the road. Never drive tired in Russia, especially not on those long country roads that cut through the vast swaths of land in the country. I would prefer to drive through highways, but that's not always possible. If you are going to stay somewhere for the night in Russia, don't pick a large metropolitan city where the prices are sky-high. Look at the roads you'll be travelling through and search for a neat city on the road with a motel or two... or maybe you're feeling fancy and would rather not follow that advice.

Always keep around a bloke or chick that can speak the Russian language. Ukrainian is not as important as there are plenty of Russians and Russian speaking people in Ukraine itself. Try and not get ripped off and always know where your stuff is at.

I'll be honest with you - there's not much to see there. These places were abandoned because of the high radiation at the time, but with the wind the damn toxic waste coming from the meltdown plant at the time reached even Kiev, so you can soak in the radiation even there.

 

[Dangit2019]

Make sure to take tons of pictures and bring an AR 15 to fend off the mutants. That's all I've got.

 

[Vkmies]

Ohai, Escapist!

It has been a lifelong dream of mine and many of my friends. And now that I have time and the possibility of doing it with some of the best friends I have ever had, I will do everything in my power to make it happen. Been talking with touring companies, checking visas, passports and insurances and it really looks like it might actually happen. I couldn't be more excited.

We will be doing this in the summer, probably in late June or early July, because that's when the whole gang is on vacation anyways. We live in Turku, south-western Finland and are planning to take my car, drive past Helsinki, cross the border to Russia and continue our way south to Ukraine. Probably through/past St. Petersburg, taking the highways. We'll probably end up staying one night in Russia.

Then crossing the border to Ukraine, driving west to Kiev and staying there. That's where most of the possible touring companies arrange their tours. Stay a few days, check out Chernobyl and Pripyat, get all kinds of cancers, come back home, die a happy, but painful death. Really, it's kind of a really elaborate suicide plan.

Anyway: Ask questions if you are wondering about something and I will answer to the best of my abilities.

If you are familiar with Finland/Russia or Russia/Ukraine border-crossing, staying in Russia, staying in Ukraine or visiting Chernobyl, I would be oh-so very thankful for any tips or tricks you can provide.

Thanks guys!

Always keep around a bloke or chick that can speak the Russian language. Ukrainian is not as important as there are plenty of Russians and Russian speaking people in Ukraine itself.

Thank you so much for all the tips! Unfortunately the highlighted one is not possible and we will have to survive with English. Gladly, 90% of our time in Russia will be on the road with one probable stop for sleep and maybe a few for food and gas.

We aren't all that worried about radiation, since we won't be there for longer than a 2-5 days. We are considering bringing radiation-protective cloaks with us and of course wear proper clothes. After the Chernobyl tour itself, there will be a radiation-check and if the numbers are worrying, a decontamination of items is offered.

And of course, the best defense is common sense. Keep on the designated path, don't strip naked, run into buildings, wrestle on moss or go swimming.

 

[Esotera]

Avoid buildings and metallic objects, and don't drink any water or anything stupid like that. Read up a bit on radiation and just be sensible and you'll be fine.

Also, please take some pictures and post them here in a follow-up thread!

 

[Vkmies]

Avoid buildings and metallic objects, and don't drink any water or anything stupid like that. Read up a bit on radiation and just be sensible and you'll be fine.

Also, please take some pictures and post them here in a follow-up thread!

Plan to do so! I'll try to get some good pics throughout the whole trip, and maybe some video, so I can edit some kind of a little video series together.

 

[mad825]

...Don't eat any of the local food.

Bring a Geiger counter (Beta and Gamma only. Alpha reading will give you incorrect/unwanted readings) and learn how to read it.

 

[White-Death]

Invest in a dash camera,make sure you have a good strong car with freh tires,never drive tired,drive carefully,make aure your reaction times are up to shape,and watch out for young women driving expensive cars and black jeeps with heavily tinted windows,those happen to be either gangsters,Oligarchs,corrupt politicians or their family members and boy do they drive...
Do a good bit of research of radiation,dont stay long in the massive vehicle graveyard and buy a some radiation cloaks or something.
Anyway,have fun,and post piccies!