A Tamed River

River Sava is moody and powerful - and there were many attempts to tame it and to harness its power. We've shown you how Austria-Hungary tried to restrain Sava north and east of Ljubljana - and how she destroyed or ignored almost everything done.

But upstream the power of Sava was put to some use in 1947, when the dam of Medvode hydroelectric plant was built. A reservoir called Lake Zbilje formed behind the dam, and the river was finally tamed.

Later another hydro plant was built upstream in Mavcice, and now Sava is slow and majestic, its raw power hidden deep in the dams, turning the turbines and lighting up our world.

The greatest surprise of this kite aerial photography session was the colour of Sava. As she runs through heavily populated, industrial and agrucultural regions, she used to be heavily polluted, brown and muddy, almost devoid of life.

This striking turquoise colour is a sign of better, more responsible times. Seems like we've managed to bring Sava back to life! :-)

All photos taken with Canon A810 on Millie, a french military kite.