I posted this in off topic but I think you bigger boys might be more appreciative of it .. I read it a while ago and I was fascinated by her story .. it's a long read but so worthwhile :-) I read the original version though and haven't got around to her updated version yet.

I really enjoyed reading about Elana's fascinating trip on a ZZR100 through chenobyl ...

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chapter1.html

Updated version ...

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chernobyl%2Drevisited/

Sorry if a repost ..I haven't seen it here before though

Jules

 

I read Elana's interesting story a few years ago. She is a good writer and there is a lot of interesting pictures and documentation from the radioactive disaster. Thewind was heading to Sweden at the time and some wild animals here got a lot of radiation. It was recommended not to eat the animalsor mushrooms from the middle ofSweden and upward.If I remember right her bike later shoot a rod bearing and shecouldn't afford to fix it. Hopefully it is now or she has got another bike.

 

Oh well. There goes my plan for getting rid of my cockroaches.

 

Thanks Jules
Wow thats a really good story with good pictures.
I work as a press photograper and i have always wanted to go there. So when i read those sories and see the pictures i always feel an urge to go there, but then the common sense comes back I have read many soryes about cernobl and saw many pictures, and every one always tells how qiuet there is.

In the area i was born in northern estonia many men were sent to cernobl in 86 to rescue mission, few of them came back and who came back, well they probably are not amongst us anymore.
If i remember correctly in Sweden that wind and radioactive cloud they find it out by themselves and before any of us in soviet union.
First few days it was a big secret, but as western countries saw that something is really wrong, as they measured really high radiation levels suddenly, the secret came out. Anyway we heard about it when the cloud was alreay in sweden and long gone from estonia leaving only invisible threats.

And now we live here in the banks of baltic sea and worry about the old nuclear reactor near estonian-russian border near st. Petersburg which is using the same technology as the cernobl. And pboblem is that as here are mostly winds from west and south-west and the reactor is about hour ride to southwest from st Petersburg where lives 5-7 million people - can you imagine a ghost town that big.

Well anyway i am definately not against nuclear energy just there is no need to play with it - because that what actually happend in cernobl.

And back to biker world

 

There was a TV programme about2years ago showing how the Russians arranged guided tours for visitors, which seemed quite interesting. The safety precautions were rigorous and the radiation level was quite low now at most places within the area. People were of course not allowed to move around freely but most of the place was shown to visitors and the radiation was monitored all the time. If I remember right, the radiation at most places there are nownot significantlyhigher than the natural radiation on many other places on earth where people always have lived. I might be wrong though, but at leastit was quite safe to visit the place for a day or more as long as one follows the regulations.

 

Wow, what a trip that must be. Thank you, that was the most interesting thing I have read in a long time.

 

Thank you ...I really enjoyed it too .. you are kinda there with her if you use your imagination :-)

These pics are good ..wish I had been there with my camera ...


Look at the ships just jamming up the river ...






and then she says about the deserted streets and towns and how the silence is deafening ..it must be so very eerie ...






"Standing on the roof of the highest building in this empty town brings a feeling of being completely alone in the world - like this whole town is."

 

That was an excellent read. Thanks for sharing.

Yes, very eerie.

Radiation is quite scary for a lot of people. Apparently not her. I believe I would be a bit hesitant in many of those areas, and I do radiation monitoring, scanning, and identification for my job. I just had a woman refuse to return to work over 10uR of Iodine 131. I explained to her that her and her child were in no danger, even sent a letter. The girl that wrote this is right. Anything that you can't see, that has the potential to kill you, is certainly scary stuff.
Everytime I get called to do a scan and find those hot watch dials from the 1930's,(Radium 226), I can't help but think ofthe lives lost. The people producing them had no idea they were ingesting highly damaging radiation. They were licking their paintbrushes between applications of the glowing paint. Many of them died untimely. I realize it's not anywhere near the scale of chernobyl, but...
I certainly feel for those poor people.
Thank god there aren't more nuclear accidents.

 

I would love to go on that journey...or at least I think I would. I agree about being there with her. There aren't too many places in which one can experience what she has. It is just unfathomable to imagine what happened there. The ships on the river are pretty wild, how about all those helicopters just sitting there too.

Chris

 

As I recall, most of the helicopters and pilots were so contaminated from ferrying troops to the reactor, that they couldn't be flown out- pilots were too sick......and all the troops died.
Very sad.......
Let's just pray it never happens again.

Imagine also having a problem with your bike (puncture, bad fuel-common in Russia, etc and being stuck there)- how scary would that be ? Gives me the "Ghostlies" just thinking about it....[X(]