Possibly OT, bike ride thru Chernobyl may be a hoax ... :(

[dmr]

I can't seem to find the original thread here, sorry for opening up a new one.

To make a long story long ... 🙂 Today at a staff meeting, one of the guys was demonstrating Google Earth, and after we zoomed in on our office building and identified cars on the top of the parking structure 🙂 he started exploring more distant regions. He first tried Estonia, yeah that worked, and somebody shouted out "hey, try Chernobyl" ...

Then I piped up saying that I had just read a very good first-person account of a trip to Chernobyl and was quite touched by it and such, and then one of the guys just starts laughing and says "... lemme guess, it was a motorcycle and some chick named Elena, right?"

Uh-huh.

Hey, wanna buy some farm land in Florida? 🙂 🙂

So anyway, I Googled it and although it looks like she was indeed there, much of what we read was apparently fiction. The bottom line seems to be that she was there, but on a guided tour and not on a solo motorbike expedition.

Chornobyl "Ghost Town" story is a fabrication TOP
e-POSHTA subscriber Mary Mycio writes:

I am based in Kyiv and writing a book about Chornobyl for the Joseph Henry Press. Several sources have sent me links to the "Ghost Town" photo essay included in the last e-POSHTA mailing. Though it was full of factual errors, I did find the notion of lone young woman riding her motorcycle through the evacuated Zone of Alienation to be intriguing and asked about it when I visited there two days ago.

I am sorry to report that much of Elena's story is not true. She did not travel around the zone by herself on a motorcycle. Motorcycles are banned in the zone, as is wandering around alone, without an escort from the zone administration. She made one trip there with her husband and a friend. They traveled in a Chornobyl car that picked them up in Kyiv.

Sorry to be the bearer of this news, but I thought you guys would like to know.

Oh well, it was an interesting piece ...

 

[eric]

just starts laughing and says "... lemme guess, it was a motorcycle and some chick named Elena, right?"

What?!! You mean, if it's on the internet, it may not be TRUE?! 🙂

This is making the forum rounds again it seems. I think I see the thread about the the bike ride through Chernoblyl about once a year on different forums.
Cool pictures though.

 

[Doug]

Well, I prefer to believe Elena's account of her solo m/c trip(s), so there! 😛

 

[siverta]

Walking around in Chernobyl/Tsjernobyl (not sure about the English name for it) sounds... well, a bit dangerous. I wonder if hi-speed infrared film will fog up from the radiaton? 😛

Perhaps it is a bad thing to joke about a big disaster like this... people are still suffering from the radation.

Sivert.