On September 1 Georgia will restrict drone flying – one of the last countries to do so. When I heard the news I grabbed my quadcopter & went on a 2 week road-trip to shoot aerial photos while the skies were still free. All Photos: © Amos Chapple/RFE/RL
#1 A Break In The Clouds During A Stormy Morning In Juta Village
High in the mountains of Mtskheta-Mtianeti.
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#2 The Road Up To Tusheti – Pretty Damn Harrowing
The day before I drove up, one of the locals of Omalo village toppled off the road to his death.
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#3 A Memorial On The Road Up To Tusheti
They were so common on this road I thought they were distance markers.
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#4 A Shepherd Leads His Flock Alongside A River In Tusheti
The river ran loud enough to drown out the noise of the 4-kilogram Inspire 2 drone used to shoot these pics.
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#5 Gremi Castle Spotlit In Morning Sunlight
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#6 Morning Mist Drifts Over A Small Church Near Ukhati Along The North-south Georgian Military Highway
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#7 Mother Georgia Above Tbilisi, The Nation’s Capital
The aluminum monument (which looks a lot better from the back than the front) has a sword ready for enemies, but a bowl of wine ready for friends.
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#8 One Of The Treats Of Driving Georgia Are The Homemade Goodies Being Sold Roadside
These are churchkelis, made by dipping a string of walnuts into a gooey mixture of grape juice. Looks like earwax, tastes like heaven.
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#9 Me On The Abano Pass, About To Discover My Bald Spot
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#10 The Shavnabada Monastery, Near Tbilisi
Looking like a little slice of Tuscany in the evening sunlight.
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#11 Springwater
Another of Georgia’s little treats for drivers are the roadside springs spurting out crisp, cold springwater. They’re so frequent I hardly had to buy any drinks.
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#12 Crypts On A Clifftop 1 Kilometer From The Border With Chechnya
When plagues swept through the region, infected villagers were banished to these stone buildings to wait for death.
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#13 Untitled
Inside, the remains of apparent plague victims can still be seen today.
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#14 The Nekresi Monastery
The fertile plains of Kakheti are in background.
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#15 Gas Station Attandant In Adjara, The Muslim Region Of Georgia
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#16 Not All Of Georgia Is Postcard-pretty
This is the hardscrabble town of Chiatura, where manganese is mined.
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#17 A Cable Car In Chiatura
The town’s dizzying geography inspired Soviet engineers to install a network of "rope roads" to transport workers up to their mines. This cable car has been running since 1954.
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#18 Clouds Swirling Around A Teensy Church In Adjara
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#19 The Katskhi Pillar, Where An Elderly Georgian Monk Has Lived For The Past 24 Years In Order To Be "closer To God"
The monk has his food winched up by volunteers from the monastery below.
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#20 The City Of Batumi At Sunset
After a bitter separatist war in Abkhazia in the early 90s, Batumi, with murkier water and less appealing beaches than the breakaway region to the north, has gone all out to attract tourism with casinos and high-rise buildings.
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