Stephen M. Bland 

View from Sighnaghi across Alazani Valley

Cellar at the Okros Winery

Sighnaghi street art

View across Kakheti

Slightly psychotic looking baby Jesus mosaic at Jvaris Mama, which dates back to the sixteenth century, though a church has stood on this site since the fifth century.

Old Town

Niko Pirosmani painting of a giraffe from 1905 in the National Gallery. The most recognised artist in Georgia, Pirosmani had never seen a giraffe, but was so enamoured by the idea of such a creature that he decided to paint it.

Peace Bridge, widely known as the 'Always' Bridge for its resemblance to a sanitary towel

Sculpture of revellers in the birthplace of wine

View of the capital from the Nariqala Fortress

Dry Bridge Market - from Lenin busts to Stalin portraits, hub of Soviet memorabilia

Built in 1984 as a glorified registry office, the Palace of Rituals - dubbed the ‘Cathedral of Atheism’ by the BBC during a visit by Margaret Thatcher - resembles a seventies sci-fi take on a Martian factory. Swirling round edifices like unravelling toilet rolls give way to a central column which brings to mind a giant, phallic chimney

Stalin's chief henchman and the man who most likely murdered Uncle Joe, Lavrenti Beria's house in Tbilisi

Relief in the 11th Century Svetitskhoevli Cathedral in the old capital of Georgia.

Stalin's death-mask in the museum dedicated to him in his hometown

Selling souvenirs outside Stalin's private railway carriage

High in the Greater Caucasus Mountains, the road to Tusheti is only passable for a few months a year

Constructed during the Mongol invasion in the 1230’s, Keselo originally consisted of 13 towers, of which six were rebuilt from 2003. On the peak among the towers, it wasn’t difficult to imagine the time when villagers would haul their possessions inside and pour boiling water on the heads of their foes

The highest permanently inhabited settlement in Europe at an elevation of 2,345 metres. Cut off by snow-drifts for over eight months a year, according to a government census from 2014, its permanent inhabitant’s number just a single old man

Crossing the Abano Pass at 2,826 metres, the ice sheets, ancient and immovable looked unreal, like giant chunks of Styrofoam. Along the roadside, graves were to be found in abundance

Capital of the Adjara region. DJ's rent out umbrellas, a new sound system every fifty yards producing a cacophony of doof

Set back from the teeming shoreline in a grassy area, a mosaic octopus with starfish sprouting from its walls and dolphins leaping from its roof which once housed the Café Fantasy has been abandoned since 2000. Its once dazzling exterior now decaying, its main modern use seems to be as a urinal.

Ali & Nino monument based on Kurban Said's novel. The metal figures move to embrace

Tiny capital of the Svaneti region. View from a Svan Tower, where locals would hole up when invaders came, throwing boulders down upon them

Sculpture in the Central Square

Georgia's second city, home to the new parliament

Hitching Georgian style.

The village of Danisparauli in the remote Khulo Valley.

House in the village of Danisparauli in the remote Khulo Valley.

Originally dating back to the 9th Century, the Ottoman Rabati Castle in the old slaving town of Akhaltsikhe.

Ancient wine-growing region in Western Georgia; part of the Imereti Province.

Making lobiani, traditional bean-filled bread.

Once home to one of the largest Jewish populations in Georgia, in 1972 the synagogue in Oni had 3,150 congregants. Today, only 10 Jews remain in the remote town.

Abandoned dacha in Shovi near the border with Russia. Established in 1926, Shovi was a Soviet-era holiday hotspot for the well-heeled.

Mt Tsikhvarga on the Georgia-Russia border. When I asked our driver why he had a shotgun, he replied, 'for bears and Russians.'

The Friendship of the Soviet Peoples Monument stares out over the stolen lands of South Ossetia. Of all the Soviet Republics, Georgia was the most resistant to Russian rule.

The Friendship of the Soviet Peoples Monument stares out over the stolen lands of South Ossetia. Of all the Soviet Republics, Georgia was the most resistant to Russian rule.

The ramshackle border town formerly known as Kazbegi. It was from local author Aleksandr Kazbegi's novel 'The Patricide' that Stalin adopted his first nickname, 'Koba.' The novelist went insane before dying young.

The village of Gergeti in the shadow of the 14th Century Gergeti Trinity Church.

Trucks queue to enter Russia. The driver I hitched with had been waiting for twelve days.