Ever since the first time I packed my bags to leave Melbourne, I’ve always wanted to go to the Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor.
For an Australian Passport holder, obtaining a Ukrainian Visa is next to impossible. I tried the first time I was in Moscow but to no avail.

Persistence paid off though, and the next time I was in Russia I somehow breezed through the process, the Ukrainian Consulate couldn’t have been happier. She didn’t understand a single thing I said, but she smiled a lot.

Before I knew it, I was with a handful of others and our ex-military tour guide, crossing check-point after check-point, clearing radiation detectors, and heading for the epicenter.

Arriving at the abolished town of Pripyat you can only be struck with aww.
A cross between disbelief, amazement, a Hollywood movie set, and the end of the world, its post-apocalyptic surrealism, and your standing in the center of it.

My frozen fingers couldn’t wind on the film fast enough.

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As featured in Frankie magazine, issue 36.