Rachaaaah: 3
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Time had flown, and with one more day to look around Racha province, we packed up camp. Our driver had promised us some more outstanding views, so expectations were high. Before we left the lake, though, I had the opportunity to see it and the reflections in it by light about 180 degrees away from that of the previous evening. The stillness, with no wind remained, and the wonderful autumn trees looked entirely different that morning.
As I have been doing for some years now, I took the time to shoot a series of frames to “stitch” together later into a panorama. Much practice has allowed me to do this without a tripod with generally good success. As long as exposure and focus don’t change, and you allow a straight line of images and enough overlap for the automatic stitching software to join images, it’s not that hard. Shoot vertically oriented frames for a horizontal image, horizontal ones for a vertical image, to take advantage of maximum image dimensions and get the largest possible final picture. It’s even possible to turn in a complete circle and return to where you started, and end up with a 360-degree image…
The way out of our muddy patch of road which had given such problems the day before proved not to be nearly so bad in the other direction, and we continued up, up, to a ridge and cliff which were to offer outstanding visibility. Mravaldzali village, another towering ridge, and beyond that, far in the distance, enough clarity to see snow-capped peaks. All draped in the reds and golds of autumn, this being mostly a deciduous forest area. At about 2200 m of altitude, many km were within our view.
There, too, was our little lake, and it turned out to be rather heart-shaped, though this outline was a little obscured by the detritus of fallen leaves at its edges. But the symbolism of one of the few lakes in the world to have this shape was not lost. On the way down, a few of us left the van for some more photos (who knows when we’ll be back!), and several others had the driver stop for a berry-picking time. It was a good opportunity to experience more of what makes Racha unique among the landscapes and nature of Georgia, all of which have their distinct features. The very shape of the mountains here was different from those of, say, Khevsureti, Tusheti, Svaneti or Adjara, all of which I had had more opportunities to see this year and compare.
We stopped in Ambrolauri for some of the local lobiani, bean bread, which In My Humble Opinion is redeemed from the dish’s usual blandness by having ham inside as well to liven up its flavor. The service in our chosen restaurant was delightfully fast enough to dispel the myth of Racha’s people being slow…
The next stop was supposed to be another high viewpoint overlooking Tqibuli, called Tskhra Jvari (Nine Crosses). However, there was road work being done below it, and it was closed, as the foreman apologetically informed us, even to the mayor of the town who had tried to take a group up earlier that day.
We couldn’t really complain, though, as Racha had shown us so much that my wife and I had never seen (and all of the province was new to the rest of our party anyway, the driver excepted). They dropped Lali and me off at our 4x4 near the Terjola turnoff on the main Georgian highway, and we parted, sated for now but determined to continue seeing as much as possible of Georgia while we can.
Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer and photographer for GT since early 2011. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with nearly 2000 members, at www.facebook.com/groups/SvanetiRenaissance/
He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri: www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti
By Tony Hamner