Vashlovani, Georgia

Vashlovani is the Georgia almost nobody expects. In the far south-east, along the Azerbaijani border, the land turns to badlands — striped clay cliffs, pistachio scrub and dry riverbeds that fill without warning. It is the country's largest protected area and its least visited.

The wildlife is real but patient. Vultures and eagles ride the thermals above the cliffs, wolves and lynx move at night, and the Alazani floodplain below the reserve holds woodland that has never been cleared. Add the mud volcanoes at Takhti-Tepa and the eleventh-century monastery at David Gareja, and the days fill quickly.

We run Vashlovani with a 4x4 and a local ranger, early starts and long quiet afternoons. Nights are spent in simple guesthouses on the edge of the reserve — the sky out here is the darkest in Georgia.