Chernobyl & Pripyat
The Chernobyl exclusion zone is one of the most mesmerising places on earth, so much so I visited twice 18 months apart in April 2013 and October 2014. Back then I think there were fewer than 10,000 visitors each year – something that had increased more than tenfold after the successful HBO miniseries broadcast. You could easily avoid 30 other people in one day in the zone, not so much 300 I should think…
It’s also crumbling and increasingly dangerous, so while access to the buildings was forbidden even when I was there we still managed to see inside almost everything we wanted to. I believe that’s no longer the case unless you go rogue and pay a stalker to get you in.
I wouldn’t have ruled out a third visit but given the situation since February 2022 it’s not really an option anymore. It does all make this collection all the more of a treasured document of a great adventure, making new friends in a desolate and decaying time capsule of a lost regime. Here are a selection of images from when it was a bit more under-the-radar and you could almost guarantee not to see anyone else but the guards and your group for the whole weekend…