# Prypyat / Chernobyl April 2011



## stateless68 (Apr 17, 2011)

some photos i took a couple of weeks ago, over two days inside the exclusion zone..



































































































can members actually view any of these photos?


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## stateless68 (Apr 17, 2011)

*before this post is binned...*

why are my photos, uploaded from photobucket, not appearing above.. i think i followed the rules.. maybe the photos are too big but i found no size restrictions!


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## Sgt. Pepper (Apr 18, 2011)

On photobucket, you want to go to the album with the photos in and copy and paste the 'IMG CODE' bit - the last option






Then just paste that as it is into your post


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## supercow (Apr 18, 2011)

Really looking forward to these photos.

You should use http://imgur.com/ to host. All you need to do is drag and drop them into the browser.

How did you organise your trip? I've been thinking of going myself.


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## King Al (Apr 18, 2011)

Great pics stateless! always good to see this one


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## krela (Apr 18, 2011)

stateless68 said:


> why are my photos, uploaded from photobucket, not appearing above.. i think i followed the rules.. maybe the photos are too big but i found no size restrictions!



Just paste the photobucket code straight into your post, no need to click the 'add image' button first. I've fixed these ones for you.


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## LulaTaHula (Apr 18, 2011)

Wow, some beautiful shots there!


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## stateless68 (Apr 18, 2011)

supercow said:


> Really looking forward to these photos.
> 
> You should use http://imgur.com/ to host. All you need to do is drag and drop them into the browser.
> 
> How did you organise your trip? I've been thinking of going myself.



Hi supercow

i arranged it through Lupine Travel, through a guy there called Dylan Harris, who knew what he was up to. I went for two whole days, spending the saturday night at the hotel in Chernobyl itself. They run tours every weekend - but it's fairly easy to find 1-2 persons who want to go ona smaller tour. That's what i did - it makes it more expensice but very much more worthwhile - we cut costs by sharing an apaprtment - i slept on the settee!

I didn't want the official tour, a big group harried off and on a bus and allowed to wander around for 15 minutes before being moved on by a bloke in combat fatigues, so i was able to hook up with another photographer from Bracknell, and we were able to come up with an itinerary and spent as much time as we wanted at 10-12 places. If we had wanted we could have spent the whole 2 days in the hospital, or the school. 

At the time of booking we were ok to get our own guide, but i think the local authorities are clamping down a bit, on the safety side i think. The problem isn't the radiation - it's the fact that the place is a death trap for those who are unaware or just careless - open lift shafts, glass, roofs and floors falling apart etc.. i was mostly worried about asbestos and the chemicals in vials / ampulets that were unavoidably broken underfoot - and i never had anything to protect my mouth and nose, and nobody else did either. Lupine told me that a few weeks after i booked the BBC were trying to get access there, very much like we did, and couldn't get in. However it's the 25th anniversary next week, and so maybe it's restricted temporarily just because of that.


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## stateless68 (Apr 18, 2011)

krela said:


> Just paste the photobucket code straight into your post, no need to click the 'add image' button first. I've fixed these ones for you.



thanks very much krela. I shall try to avoid making the same mistake next time. Thanks again for sorting me out!


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## stateless68 (Apr 18, 2011)

LulaTaHula said:


> Wow, some beautiful shots there!



thank you! i've a few more to add to the post, and i'll write something about the photos now i'm up and running here


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## stateless68 (Apr 18, 2011)

King Al said:


> Great pics stateless! always good to see this one



thank you kindly.. the night before i went a friend of mine, a Serbian lady living in Pristina, sent a link to a film made about the incident, in which i was amazed to realise that having filled the 'breach' with lead and concrete, the magma intensity heat was close to searing its way through the base of the reactor and into the cold ater course that run beneath it which, had it done so, would have triggered an explosion that "would have made Europe uninhabitable". Frightening.. nice avatar!


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## godzilla73 (Apr 18, 2011)

Was that the Schevchenko film (The severe days)? If it was you will know that a lot of that breach filling work was done by the so called "bio-robots" (i.e sacrificed workers, not unlike the Fukushima 50) - if you haven't seen it, I've embedded it on my site (link below and go to "UD Ramblings" then click Chernobyl.
GDZ


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## swanseamale47 (Apr 18, 2011)

Great shots, I'd love to visit this place myself. There was a program on a few days ago about the wildlife there making a big comeback, some of the views they showed were amazing.


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## davidralph (Apr 18, 2011)

I think the mural in the Palace of Culture is one of the eeriest images in the world.


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## supercow (Apr 18, 2011)

stateless68 said:


> Hi supercow...



Awesome. Any advice you can give to someone thinking of going? Anything you need to pack, etc.


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## Em_Ux (Apr 19, 2011)

I enjoyed looking at your shots...Thanks


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## UrbanX (Apr 19, 2011)

Wow, fantastic report, and lots o info! 



supercow said:


> Awesome. Any advice you can give to someone thinking of going? Anything you need to pack, etc.



Not wanting to hijack this fantastic thread to put one of my own links up, but: I'm going there next month for a four day tour (spending 3 nights in Chernobyl) Its not my first vidit, and I've published my packing list with a new map etc. here www.urbanxphotography.co.uk/Chernobyl 

Once again, ace report!


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## stateless68 (Apr 19, 2011)

UrbanX said:


> Wow, fantastic report, and lots o info!
> 
> 
> 
> ...



hi everyone

well i will respond to this with a more considered answer but i found a knee pad / protector invaluable, as kneeling down to get a specific angle will often involve putting yourself on glass, or sludgy stuff, or, worse, moss, which retains the radioactive stuff very well and should not be wandered upon. Much. I would recommend a mouth / nose protector, you know, one of those things that cyclists wear in the city. Nobody wears them in the exclusion zone but if you're going into buildings full of dust and goodness knows what else, my concern was, and is, asbestos. No idea if it there, and what type it is. 

when you are in the zone, so not to waste time driving 20km out of it just to eat, take bottled water - the fizzy stuff is really good over there, and snickers. The cheese is awful. There is also a small gift shop in Chernobyl, close to the firemen's memorial - where you can get buy Chernobyl pens, mugs and t-shirts!! It makes an unusual gift. 

As for photographic kit, a great deal of the buildings will be in deep shadow, and then you will find sharp explosions of light, bursting in from broken windows etc..


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## Foxylady (Apr 21, 2011)

Fabulous photos, Stateless. Especially love the signage ones and the railway. Excellent.


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## stateless68 (Apr 21, 2011)

Foxylady said:


> Fabulous photos, Stateless. Especially love the signage ones and the railway. Excellent.



cheers very much!

east devon's jurassic park has to be Sidmouth, or Budleigh.. surely?! bless them, i love both of them - in fact i'm down your way on 29th, sun, sea, a few photos, a few beers, then City v Argyle..


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## Foxylady (Apr 21, 2011)

stateless68 said:


> east devon's jurassic park has to be Sidmouth, or Budleigh.. surely?!


Yup, the Jurassic Coast stretches from Exmouth to Poole in Dorset. I'm in Seaton. Hope you have a great time...and that the weather stays. It's HOT!!!


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## night crawler (Apr 24, 2011)

I've looked at all the threads and came to this one last and can only look in awe at them. Nice one stateless.


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