Chernobyl, anyone been?

[Alfachick]

Thinking about taking a trip to Kyiv for a long weekend/short break around the end of October. I have always been intrigued by Chernobyl and Pripyat so thought a day trip on one of the tours that go there would be very interesting.

So I was wondering if anyone here had been (pics welcome ), and if they could recommend any specific tour company.
Also I would appreciate some info on how radioactive the place still is. As in is it "safe" to go there for a day visit?

Cheers in advance.

[pidsy]

Few people have been - plenty of pics and info on the urbex photography thread.

http://mobile.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=...

[LimaDelta]

Nope, but there is a ride report from Adventure Rider which has some useful info if you are planning a trip

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50...

[llewop]

Alfachick said:

Thinking about taking a trip to Kyiv for a long weekend/short break around the end of October. I have always been intrigued by Chernobyl and Pripyat so thought a day trip on one of the tours that go there would be very interesting.

So I was wondering if anyone here had been (pics welcome ), and if they could recommend any specific tour company.
Also I would appreciate some info on how radioactive the place still is. As in is it "safe" to go there for a day visit?

Cheers in advance.

Someone has already posted a link to thread with some of my pictures in

Yes I've been - Pripiyat only for about 1/2 hour, but Chernobyl itself - I was working on a project there for 4 years until the end of last month, so more than happy to answer questions on 'is it safe' - since that is exactly why I was there! Essentially - stay on the paths/roads and don't put things on the ground and you should be fine. If you want more info, let me know. I can't comment on tour companies as I didn't need to use one, but I suspect what they'll arrange for you would be much the same for all of them.

[StevieBee]

llewop said:

don't put things on the ground and you should be fine.

I've read this before but not how the issue of walking is addressed!

[llewop]

StevieBee said:

llewop said:

don't put things on the ground and you should be fine.

I've read this before but not how the issue of walking is addressed!

walking on paths and roads is fine (they are washed and checked), so probably putting things down on those would be fine - the advice is more that if you put, say, a camera down, you're more likely to put it down somewhere soft, such as on grass/moss/earth - all a bit more likely to transfer contamination. Having said that; we have only had a couple of contamination events in 4 years, so it's probably at the level of precautionary rather than significant risk.

[Alfachick]

So its fairly safe then. That's good to know.
Perhaps wearing old trainers that can be binned would be a good precaution to take? I did wonder if perhaps it would be easy to pick up contamination on your clothes and if they would have to be binned (where does one bin possibly contaminated clothing?) or something.

Are there any tour companies that anyone can recommend? They all seem to do the same stuff really. Has anyone got any experience of any of them?

PH is so useful!

Cheers guys