Into the Zone: My Trip to Chernobyl & Pripyat
“You are going to Chernobyl? Why on Earth?”
“Well, if you have to ask that, I don’t think I’ll have an answer that will satisfy you.”
Ever since I heard that it’s possible to go on a trip to the Chernobyl power plant and in the city of Pripyat in the turn of the millennium, doing that has been one of my dreams and Things To Do Before Dying. Why? Well, I refer you to the quote in the beginning of the blog post, a discussion I’ve had several times in the last few weeks. Ever since I was a kid I have been very fascinated with post-holocaust settings and “A World Without Us” types of scenarios, modern ruins have had a certain weird appeal to me for ages, and then then of course Chernobyl is a name that gives rise to all kinds of thoughts and feelings.
Chernobyl, Pripyat and the Zone of Alienation
I was 11 when the Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded. I’d like to say that the moment had a big impact for me, but it really didn’t. It’s a bit strange, since my memory goes really far back to my childhood and Chernobyl certainly affected Finland, which got a big dose of fallout along with Sweden. Somehow, apparently, it just didn’t affect me personally enough that I had committed it to memory back then.
In 2007 I became aware of the new sarcophagus being built over the old one in 2008, when the Ukrainian government also forbid traveling to the graveyard of the military vehicles used in the clean-up. “That’s it for that dream”, I thought stupidly and more or less forgot about the whole idea – until Toni phoned me earlier this spring and asked if I was interested in accompanying him and some other people to the radioactive zone.
Sold.
Caving in Wales: Ogof Ffynnon Ddu – The Cave of the Black Spring
The two weeks after our Australian trip it was mostly hot as hell in Finland, and I was busy with getting everything back on track. I generally like hot weather as long as I can escape it, but unfortunately our crappy apartment is freezing in the winter and hot and stuffy as hell in the summer, so I’m not looking forward to summer days in the city. I didn’t have that much time to wind down, apart from the midsummer festival Juhannus which we spent in our cabin with pals, mostly eating, saunaing, drinking, playing board games and sleeping far too late.
NIBBLED BY A CAVING BUG
After that there was too days of catching up with work and equipment shopping, until it was the time for Susi and I to leave our first caving trip ever. Miri has been hinting that I should try it for some time now, and caving has started to sound more and more interesting. As it happened, Miri’s and our schedules didn’t match, but when Dare asked us to come to Wales to check some caves, against all odds there was an empty weekend I could free from the calendar.
(Check out the big photoset of the trip on Flickr!)
The South Wales Caving Club headquarters, where we stayed for the weekend.
I think a main lynchpin in trying caving was to hear that it doesn’t actually require any climbing skills. Although I can see what’s fun in wall and rock climbing and it’s great pastime to do at times, it’s not something I enjoy in the long run just by itself. For me climbing feels like a tool for getting somewhere.
Also, the caving equipment was surprisingly down to earth and cheap. We already have wool socks, thermal underwear and fleece pants we use when diving, so what we needed in addition to that was short rubber boots, a fleece jacket, knee and elbow pads, a helmet, an overall and a head lamp – and that’s it. We ended up buying a proper climbing helmet, and at 44 euros it was the single most expensive item in the list.
A map of the cave system. Yes, it takes the whole wall, and more.
Iron Sky in Australia – Working Down Under
“So, we are filming half of Iron Sky in Australia.”
“Oh, it’s confirmed then?”
“Yeah. A bunch of us are going to Australia in two weeks.”
“Will I be going?”
“Yes. You’ll be in Australia for two weeks with us.”
“Oh. Cool!”
…and that is part of why I like my current job as the publicist and making of guy of Iron Sky. During our trip to Cannes Film Festival this year we confirmed our deal with an Australian production company called New Holland Pictures, and in the beginning of June we took a trip to the other side of the planet to handle big bunch of practical matters. They included a ton of budget talk, checking out some studios and shooting locations, doing some casting, meeting special effects and stunts experts, and of course contacting our fans.
HALFWAY AROUND THE PLANET
Looking from Finland, Australia is pretty much on the other side of the world. If I’d want to get further away from home, the only better choices would be New Zealand or Antarctica, or maybe some small islet in Southern Ocean. In any case, our trip took around 34 hours from Helsinki to Brisbane. It included a six hour layover in Hong Kong, where we could have been able to go out and visit the city if we had realized it. The weirdest thing in the airport were the health department officials, who were sitting in a small pen wearing face masks and measuring the temperatures of travelers remotely with IR cameras. Our production manager Tarja was feverish, but managed to slip past their scrutiny.
(Check out more photos in the Flickr photoset)
Sunrise over Australian coast.
The Pacific Rim from Hong Kong to Australia looked like it was one big thunderstorm. Over Manila chain lightning reached from horizon to horizon and the clouds flashed bright almost every other second. When I woke up from a surprisingly good night of sleep over Australia, there were still some anvil clouds sizzling and crackling with small angry lightning. Then it was just a matter of getting through Australia’s horribly draconian immigration and customs. Maybe they are still sore about some rabbits a century and a half ago, I don’t know, but even having travelled both to Russia and US, the severity of the scrutiny managed to still surprise me.
