A visit to Chernobyl: Alan in Chernobyl - Part 4

The school was a strange experience, and walking around it reminded me a lot of post-apocalyptic stories and games - anyone who has read or watched the film "The Road" would be in very familiar territory here.

The sense of desolation and atmosphere in the place hit me when we came out of the school and I looked around at the street. Every single one of those buildings, all those high-rises, the whole city - deserted, gutted, lifeless. It really is a grim thing - imagine what it would be like if the whole world was like that in a real post-apocalypse. It makes you appreciate the civilisation that we have.

I was conflicted in Pripyat. On one hand, I thought it was quite grim and I was thinking about what happened here and the fates of the people who lived here. On the other hand the explorer in me was fascinated at the prospect of exploring the depths of this unique environment. I'm glad we visited the Chernobyl museum in Kiev the next day to fully appreciate the tragedy and story behind such an interesting place and I strongly urge anyone who visits Chernobyl to go to the museum first as it makes a much bigger impact.

As we came out of the school, we could see the looters from earlier up in the fifth story of a high-rise. They were taking out the old radiators - they could sell the metal. We watched as they pushed a radiator off a balcony to crash to the ground below. Outside many of the buildings you could see radiators piled up outside. Our guide told us he thought they were stupid. These buildings are still irradiated and metal absorbs large amounts of radiation - and these guys are carrying them around. They are either ignorant to this danger or they simply don't care. As we drove past, we saw them stacking a radiator on a pile, and I caught this rather spooky blurred shot as one of them noticed us. They were the only other people we saw in the whole city.

We arrived at another famous landmark - Pripyat swimming pool. Anyone who has played Call of Duty 4 will recognize this! In the game the surrounding area is different but the building is quite accurately reflected.

The swimming pool was actually kept open for a number of years after the disaster for the clean-up workers, but it eventually closed due to sanitation problems.

The reception area.

Again the guide gave us free reign to explore and he went back to the car. I guess he's seen it all before (or just doesn't fancy hanging out in irradiated buildings longer than he has to!).

Very Silent Hill!

Damien sporting his lovely new Russian fur hat.

Inside a pitch black room.

Anyone fancy a shower?

Me signing a visitor's book. It wasn't very big and it looked like there had only been a couple of tours in the past month. The visitors listed were international. If you ever go here, take a look and see if you can find us - Alan Stock and Damien Monnier, December 2009.

I suggested we venture down the stairs into the complete darkness... bit of an adventure!

It was pitch black down there. I felt like we were in a horror film, feeling our way along the walls. The camera flash revealed what was around us.

The same photo, without camera flash. That's the only bit of light I saw down there.

We headed outside. I'm not sure what a broken piano is doing outside a swimming pool...

Behind the swimming pool.

Quite a common sight in the city - holes which I guess used to be manholes - the covers already taken by looters, of course. Would you like to have a rummage around down in the sewers? Anyone who has played Stalker would agree with my sentiment to stay above ground!