We were planning the family tour of duty from New Zealand back to the UK when my wife stupidly asked if there was anywhere I would like to visit as it was my 50th birthday, she normally does most of the holiday planning.
Without much hesitation I said... "I have always wanted to visit Chernobyl"
Her jaw on the floor quickly indicated she was expecting something a little different to my train of thought although she quickly came round to the idea once we had talked about it a little.
Why Chernobyl? It is one of the few places on the planet where you can see first hand what 30 years of nature reclaiming villages, towns and cities actually looks like. For those too young to remember when it happened here is a Wikipedia Overview of the event.
Even after 30+ years there is still a tightly controlled exclusion zones around the area. An outer a 30km diameter zone and the inner a 10km zone, both with tightly controlled checkpoints, more on that later.
The best way to visit the area is via a guided tour as they handle all the paper work required, know their way around and know how to keep you safe! We picked Solo East Travel, the company Top Gear trusted when they did their episode which ended up with them driving past the reactor.
So on a cold November morning we found ourselves waiting in Maidan Square Kiev for the bus that would take us and a handful of other adventurers on our journey into the zone :)
That is the introduction out of the way, I will write the actual trip in a few parts over the coming days. It was a really magical experience and well worth doing.
Any comments and questions welcome. Have you been or do you plan on going?
Woz
UPDATE: Part 2 is now available!
