We move on to our next stop, quick – get back on the bus! In Part II we went deep into the woods and explored a secretive military base. We discovered the massive Duga-1 Radar Array and sneaked into its abandoned control room. Now, it is time for us to move on ...

Roadside Stop

After leaving Duga-1, we travel a few kilometres on our road to Pripyat. Out of the front window of our bus, we can already get a distant glimpse of the Chernobyl NPP and its exploded Reactor No. 4, which casts its dark shadow over every inch of "The Zone". We are now in the second layer of the zone, where many "stains" of radioactivity (described in Part I) can be found.

But we are not going to Pripyat yet. Our bus halts at a statue to the fallen Soviet soldiers of WWII, or "The Great Patriotic War" as it is known in Russia. As you can see, the flower bed in front of the statue is still cared for and on the name plate you can see the remains of flowers people brought here, possibly on a commemorative day.

To remind ourselves of where we are, we put out a Geiger counter right next to the statue. Unfortunately, the picture quality turned out to be poor and I don't remember the number on the indicator, but these things make a 'beep' sound when they notice unusual levels of radioactivity. At this point, the counter was going absolutely crazy. We found one of the "stains" where years ago radioactive material blown out of the reactor has crashed on the ground – remember, we are very close to Pripyat and the 10 km layer of the highest contamination.

Now, look back at the statue of the soldier. Do you see the small path behind it leading into the woods? Let's go ...

The Stuff Nightmares are Made Off

We are getting into some spooky stuff here. Actually, I noticed only way after taking the picture that there is a baby doll on it – can you see it? Let me tell you where we are now.

After following that tiny roadside path into the woods, we have discovered what remains of Kopachi village, which was severely affected by the fallout. It is just one building and it is the former village kindergarden, which we are going to explore in a moment. Do you wonder what happened to the rest of the village, though?

Well, in many towns and villages that are located in the zone, the Soviet authorities have tried out several methods of combating or isolating the radioactivity that was released after the Chernobyl disaster. In Kopachi, they have literally buried most of the houses under the ground, but it didn't work and only made matters worse due to increased ground water contamination. Ironically, the Russian word kopat from which the village derives its name means "to dig" or "to shovel".

I Wish I Could Go to Kindergarden Again ...

This is going to be the only picture of our Chernobyl trip not taken by me, because I didn't photograph the outside view of the kindergarden – please bear with me for the sake of immersion. This is probably going to be the scariest place of our whole excursion into the Chernobyl Exclusion Area.

Once you enter that ramshakle building – the only one that remains above the ground – you are instantly overcome by a feeling of sadness and melancholy, particularly if you are Russian or grew up in the Soviet Union. Everything here looks so earily familiar, even though you can only perceive it through a curtain of decay. Like many things in the zone, this is a time capsule of sorts.

This room is the worst. The dolls and children's clothes and shoes are still lying on the beds.

A typical Soviet children's song still pinned to the wall.

"We are going to fly,
On a plane, on a plane!
It is ready for our flight.
We will fly above the houses,
We will fly above the children,
And then afterwards we return to momy!"

I hope the poor picture quality adds to the atmosphere.

An old chalk board. And the floor didn't resist the test of time too well as you can see.

Educational material and song books. The second picture teaches the Russian alphabet.

-------------------TO BE CONTINUED-------------------

Let's get out of here. This place shouldn't be disturbed for too long! In the upcoming Part IV of our Chernobyl tour, we will finally get our first glimpses of the Chernobyl NPP and visit Pripyat, where we are going to explore the former city center and townhall. Stay tuned and don't get off the bus, if you don't want the mutants to catch you! :)