Visited abandoned wooden church, found soviet books, slept in forbidden places - read more to discover s.t.a.l.k.e.r's setting in real life :).
One of the worst feelings in the hiking or trekking trip is the feeling that you have taken extra things with you. It could be some device, a suitcase, another pair of shoes, products. It is not about having overweighted backpack, some (even minimal) hiking experience allows you to be quite comfortable with the weight of everything placed behind your shoulders. Rather, you feel frustrated: you are carrying something you could leave at home.
So, my friends and I went for a short walk in a rather deserted and slightly radioactive forest in our Kyiv region. Well, we trespassed Chernobyl zone :).
I was invited to join at the last moment and it turned out that my friends had already bought all food, and due to a misunderstanding I decided that I also needed to bring some food. As a result, I have almost a kilo of buckwheat and 2 cans of stew in my backpack, plus a few more edibles - so, I can cook for myself for a couple of days.
Along with the disappointment with the exra contents of the backpack, the idea of looking at some abandoned villages, after finishing the route planned with friends, appeared in my mind. Those former settlements are on the other side of the Exclusion Zone. But not far enough to prevent me from doing so.
After few days of our trip I said goodbye to our friends. They were heading out of the Zone, and me, illuminated only by the starry sky, realised I am on the asphalt road heading to Pripyat.
7 kilometers in the dark, Chernobyl nuclear plant lights could be seen somewhere in the side. I spotted a car near the Red Forest. And heared voices of people, sneaked out of the road.
Finally get to Prypyat ghost town. I was there few times. I do not linger and continue my way along the radioactive dump to the railway bridge across Prypiat river.
This is the only road from the rightside of the Zone to the Left, except for the Chornobyl car bridge. It is far away and there is hardly to reach if you are illegal traveller like me.
Over the Prypyat River, at the early dawn. Behind me - the lights of the Chornobyl NPP and the famous railway station Semykhody, used by workers of Novarka (the company that builds New safe confinement) and other working people every day.
From the bridge to the railway crossing near Zimovyshche - I am already on the left side of the Zone. At first there was a dirt and gravel road (it's time to bother myself for having decided to go hiking in sneakers, to walk comfortably on the ground, but the stones feel 100% by feet and because of that the feet get tired faster), then the asphalt began. I come to the junction, from here just a couple of kilometers to the state border of Belarus.
The day began, the sun came up and here I was finally on the beginning of the Krasno village.
The wooden church in Krasno is the only one preserved in the Chernobyl Zone. In general, of all churches besides it there is only 1 in the town of Chernobyl.
Everything is perfectly preserved here, periodically the priest arrives and holds the messes - which are attended sometimes by former residents of the village, who can get here by obtaining a permit.
You can see notes that include the names to be remembered in prayer.
There are candles, icons and a donation box with money in it.
The village school has preserved books and portraits of Lenin.
The villages of the Left sidek of the Zone are known for their good "preservation" - much less looters have visited here than on the right side.
And "stalkers"-illegal visiters like me here are much less frequent.
Inside the houses - beds, tables, toys, household items of ordinary poor peasants.
In one of the houses I decide to sleep. Cooked buckwheat with stew - this dish I have for breakfast and dinner for the whole time of my walk.
To be continued ...
View this post on TravelFeed for the best experience.
I remember there was a blog of a motorcyclist that periodically snuck into the Exclusion Zone and took pictures back in the late '90s or early '00s. The sudden abandonment of the homes left their treasures still taped to the appliances and pinned to the walls, and the voices of the children that made them seemed to echo from the photographs like ghosts.
I thought it was a unique blog, but I guess she was just one of many that venture into Chernobyl. Props on not letting fear rule you.
Thanks!
Me too - but I ended up researching Elena and holy crap was that was quite a rabbit hole!
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/chapter1.html
great urbex @boga4, .. you got guts to sleep at one of the abandoned places, ... respect.
Крутая стаття! Виглядає як місце із фільму жахів.
Woah fantastic, Urbex is my forte so I pick up my ears when anyone posts something decent on Steemit. Would love to go there.. complete with an invisibility cloak!
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 15/20 - need recharge?)
Congratulations, Your Post Has Been Added To The Steemit Worldmap!
Author link: http://steemitworldmap.com?author=boga4
Post link: http://steemitworldmap.com?post=trespassing-chernobyl-to-the-most-remote-villages
Want to have your post on the map too?
Congratulations! Your high-quality travel content was selected by @travelfeed curator @elsaenroute and earned you a partial upvote. We love your hard work and hope to encourage you to continue to publish strong travel-related content.
Thank you for being part of the TravelFeed community!
Thanks for posting through TravelFeed.io! You have received a larger upvote from us. We hope to see you soon on TravelFeed.io!
Posting through TravelFeed.io also makes your post eligible to participate in the travel writing contest by @invisusmundi where you can earn up to 100 STEEM! Read the contest announcement for more information on how to participate.
We are continuously working on improving TravelFeed, recently we presented at SteemFest⁴, published our Android app and launched our Steem witness.
Please consider voting for us as a witness. If you're not sure how to do that, it's easy: Head over to our Support Us page and hit the witness voting button to vote with Steem Keychain, or Steemconnect if you are not a Keychain user. Alternatively, use this Steemconnect link or head over to the Steemit Wallet and enter travelfeed in the box.
Learn more about TravelFeed by clicking on the banner above and join our community on Discord.
So Chernobyl is still warm, while the rest of Europe is in winter ?
this trip was made in summer)
I got the impression you were trying to make it appear like these were fresh pictures from your recent trip.
I discovered steem much more later then doing crazy stuff like this)
How about mentioning that in your post ?
Wow. What an ace adventure.
Probably a daft question, but how safe is Chernobyl these days? In terms of radiation levels.
completely safe.
Hiya, @choogirl here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made into our Honorable Mentions in Daily Travel Digest #716.
Your post has been manually curated by the @steemitworldmap team to support your work. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting us so we can keep the project going!
Become part of the Haveyoubeenhere community:
Congratulations @boga4! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPVote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!
very beautiful and interesting...
So as one of the few people who have actually been there, do you think there was ever really any radiation, or are nuclear meltdowns as fake as nuclear bombs?
The radiation was real.
My father participated in liquidation of Chernobyl disaster.
Hi died many years ago, his illness was caused by the radiation. It was really dangerous some years after it happened
Any thoughts on why it's not so bad now rather than staying dangerous for thousands of years as was predicted?