Luxembourg - Kiev - Chernobyl - Minsk - Wroclaw

 

 

Shortly after the 20th commemoration of the nuclear disaster of Chernobyl, a hundred motorcyclists visited, on two wheels, the site of the broken nuclear plant. A very emotional excursion to a place which, for more than 36 000 years, will emit dangerous radiation. The aim of the tour was also to deliver donations, both in cash and material to various sites in the Ukraine and in Belorussia, for a total value of about 500 000 Euro.

 

LuxembourgUnder the direction of Michel Turk, president of Eurobiker Luxembourg, the Luxembourg bikers, more than 20 motorcyclists, left the Grand Duchy on Thursday, June 1. The official departure was given in front of the town hall by Luxembourg’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean Asselborn. After two days the group reached Vienna. In the Austrian capital, Eurobiker from various horizons, with a very strong majority of German participants, came together. Inscription, briefing, and introduction of the ‘tour guides’; after a short night the long trip to Chernobyl could start. 83 motorbikes took part in the tour, with 92 pilots and passengers. Two nurses accompanied them in an ambulance, two mechanics and a few more people in cars, ensuring logistics.

 

Vienna - Slovakia - Uzgorod (Ukraine)

 

The official departure of the 4th edition of the Charity Tour of Eurobiker is given at 8:15 in the morning of Saturday June 3, on the ‘square of heroes (Heldenplatz)’, the main courtyard of Hofburg of Vienna.

 

ViennaThe morning blessings are given by the Jewish cantor Risto Tähtinen and the Rumanian priest Dietrich Galter who both participated in the tour with their own motorbikes. Unfortunately the blessings had no effect on the weather: the departure and the way towards the Austrian-Slovakian border have to be done under heavy rain. The reception at the border post of Bratislava – Jarovce by the motorcyclists of the Slovakian Federation - and local television – is very warm, just like the reception and lunch, which they have prepared for the motorcyclists in the mountains of Tatra. The passing of the intra-European border, but leaving the ‘Schengen Zone’ and the ‘Euro Zone’, happens without any major difficulty.

 

The reception at the border post of Bratislava – Jarovce by the motorcyclists of the Slovakian Federation - and local television – is very warm, just like the reception and lunch, which they have prepared for the motorcyclists in the mountains of Tatra. The passing of the intra-European border, but leaving the ‘Schengen Zone’ and the ‘Euro Zone’, happens without any major difficulty.

 

BorderUAThe crossing of Slovakia from west to east, a trip of about 500 kilometres, is splendid. The group escaped the rain, while driving carefully on the wet roads. A new challenge awaits Eurobiker at the border post of Vysne Nemecke/Uzgorod: patience is necessary to pass the motorbikes from the European Union to the Ukraine.

 

After more than three hours of waiting, the night has begun; communal authorities and population offer a nice reception in Uzgorod. A first occasion for the European visitors to meet with the traditional ceremony of giving bread and salt, a ceremony which will be repeated on all the stops through the Ukraine and Belorussia. After this welcome ceremony, the participants learn, in good mood, to live in a hotel, which still shows Soviet standards. As, amongst other things, there is no hot water on all floors.

 

Uzgorod – Kiev

 

It will take two more days for the hundred motorcyclists to join the capital of the Ukraine. Time for a beautiful excursion through the Carpathian Mountains to get to L’viv, old Lemberg. It is Sunday: all the inhabitants of the city seem to spend their time on the main square in front of the splendid Opera, preferring mainly free occupations to consumption on a terrace. Apart from Kiev, the Ukraine remains a very poor country.

 

KorostysevAfter a night spent in Chmelnickij, the motorcyclists have to cross a true flood to join the most poignant stage of their trip: the visit of the ‘Don Bosco’ mission, in the small town of Korostysev. Under umbrellas, the whole population is present to welcome the motorcyclists, in front of all, the prefect of the area and the mayor. The weather will oblige bikers and locals to take refuge in the church for a emotional ceremony of welcome, with songs performed by young people, little stories presented by the children and a big meal prepared by the women of Korostysev.

 

After a couple of hours, we continue towards Kiev: the main boulevard ‘Khreshatik’ is blocked for us, to enable us to park the hundred motorbikes in front of the town hall, the same place, where the village of tents marking the orange revolution once stood. After the official reception in the town hall, a bus trip through the city made it possible to guess the beauty of the capital of the Ukraine, with its many monasteries with the gilded roofs. Kiev and its hotels have risen, contrary to the other parts of the Ukraine, to European standards.

 

Chernobyl

 

Tuesday June 6, main destination of the tour: the visit of the site of Chernobyl. After having reached by road the new city of Slavutych - where the majority of the workers of the nuclear site live – the participants of our tour leave their motorbikes on the parking and get on the train. It takes a little hour through the “forbidden zone” before we arrive at the station on the old production site for nuclear power.

 

Very emotional was the visit of the ‘ghost city’ of Prypiat, as well as of the monument of the ‘Liquidators’, a monument build by the firemen for their colleagues who died within a few days after the explosion in 1986. In the ‘Chernobyl Centre’, only 150 meters away from the impressive sarcophagus, we get detailed explanations about the catastrophe of 1986.

 

ChernobylThe explosion of April 26, 1986 in the reactor number 4, moved a lid weighting no less than 2000 tons. It will continue to emit huge amounts of high radiation for the next 36 000 years. The current sarcophagus presents many defaults. A project, requiring the whole world to finance a budget of two billion dollars, should make it possible to set up a new enclosure. But the disaster of Chernobyl will continue to worry many more generations.

 

We return by train to Slavutych, after an obligatory passage in a radiation detector. After having planted a ‘European forest’ in the ‘new’ city, the journey continues on bike, with the entry into Belorussia and a night in Gomel, a large city located in a zone submitted to strong radiation

 

Belorussia

 

In Belorussia, we have the opportunity to visit the hospital of Vetka, one of the establishments having received medical equipment. Among the material provided to the hospital in Vetka: a whole new installation for a dentist's cabinet, including equipment for X-rays. All together, four trucks loaded with medical material; clothes and toys were collected for the Ukraine and Belorussia. After lunch in the centre of the small city, the motorcyclists get back on their saddles, riding the very straight roads up to Minsk. There they where hosted in a centre of meeting and formation financed by German Humanitarian Aid.

 

Back home

 

The long trip back home made it possible to appreciate the old cities of Warsaw and Wroclaw in Poland. In the last mentioned city, old Breslau, the traditional closing party of the tour took place. After two more days, the Luxembourg participants get back to Grand Duchy on Sunday, June 11, at the end of a tour of more than 5 500 kilometres. In spite of the rain, sometimes very bad roads and tiredness inherent to such a trip, Eurobiker did together some 500 000 kilometres without any accident or a severely wounded person to be mentioned.

 

under the protection of :

Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg    Dr. Wolfang Schüssel, Austria    Michael Müller MdB, Germany