The bordermarkers of the Pyrenees : all my trips
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- 9 may 2009 -
Bm145 is atypical

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 esfr-trip-track-20090509.kml
(click to open in Google Earth or copy link to Google Maps;
click right on this link to download gpx-version
)

In the morning the fog has gone, it's clear. Early start. Weather: sunny and windy. Walking getting tough in the afternoon.

For explanation of the gps-coordinates and other cartographic backgrounds:
see my cartography page

According to my watch:  walking: ± 07.40 - 17.30 (9.55uur), no break. Up 1609m, down 1180m = 2789  in total. Highest 1404m, lowest 557m

According to visugpx
- distance : 25.3 km
- cum. elevation gain : 1354 m
- cum. elevation loss : 909
- total elevation:  2263

- altitude maxi : 1426 m
- altitude mini : 574 m
- altitude average : 974 m
Decided suddenly to go back to search for bm145 which I couldn't find yesterday.

On my way I pass the rock with bm147 at the back. ('done' yesterday).
The sky is clear, allowing to recognize the borderline in the landscape.

Move the cursor over the picture to see border-indications.
Move the cursor over the picture to see border-indications.
Move the cursor over the picture to see border-indications.
Now I can localize the spot of bm145 fairly well in relation to the edge of the forest.  I can't find a bordercross but do see this stone.
Only at second sight I discover the number 145 carved vertically in the stone!
The number with some chalk.  This stone is atypical in shape and number but it's definitely bm145!
Almost one year later I will learn that the whitish rock behind this marker has a cross on it.  I discovered it on this page  of Robert  Darrieumerlou's site.

Luckily one of my own pictures showed that cross.

Move the cursor over the picture to see where the cross is. 
Localisation: ± 50 meter west of a shepherd's cabin and a few meters  besides the country road coming from the cabin.
I return to the tarmac road - with a large barn besides it - following a cattle trail from the shepherd's cabin to that barn.

Once again - like yesterday - up the hill-ridge to bm146.
Bm146

And looking down on the rock with bm147

Move the cursor over the picture to see border-indications.
Back to the tarmac road and on my way back once again passing bm147.

The rock with bm147
Back to the house where I camped last night.  Just behind that house I descend steeply on a meadow and pick up a cattle trail that becomes a path which ends at a country road.
I follow that road to the border, it merges into another road/path which enters a forest.
But I can't find bm149 at the presumed borderline.  I see I'm wrong after reading my map more  carefully, the bordermarker should be  on the other side of the stream down below.
I go back and near a farm ("Attention aux chiens").  I take the right road cq. path. You  have to stay above the stream at your right and later above the forest at your right. The trail climbs gradually, is sometimes vague and leads to this weathered marker without a number whatsoever.
But a few meters further, there's this cross, bm149!

The 'Procès-Verbal' and the map mention a borderstone.
I climb steeply in the direction of bm150. I reach the summit which in fact is a ridge with 3 rock-summits. At the middle of those 3 there's bm150 (as is stated in the 'Procès-Verbal')

Move the cursor over the picture to see border-indications.




At this spot (but also earlier and later) the borderline is well recognizable in the landscape as long as you know the bm-localisations.

Move the cursor over the picture to see border-indications.



Bm150
Now it's getting easier. Following a cattle trail I descend to the a road near a cabin. That  road leads to:

bm151, a  bit besides and below the road.

Looking back at the ridge with bm150

Move the cursor over the picture to see
border-indications.



I keep following that road which enters a forest, bends gradually back and in the end bends sharply in the direction of the Col with

bm152
I ascend the next hill,  heading for bm153.

Once again looking back, localizing the bordermarkers and bordermarkers.

Move the cursor over the picture to see border-indications.
On the hilltop there are the remnants of a fortress,  in the midle at the corner  of  the  fence: bm153
Bm153
And descending to

Bm154
I leave the borderline and walk into Spain to the Puerto de Ibaneta (part of the GR11 or GR12-trails with red-white waymarks),
and from there I follow the pilgrim's way of St. James back in the direction of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port.

This is a view of the monastery of Roncevaux, the first stop after Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port.


One of the pilgrims on their way to Roncevaux.

The Way of St. James must be the best waymarked trail of the universe.

Arriving at the border, I pass bm199 and

Bm198. Here a little stream is starting being the border untill bm197.

Bm198 with a better view of this stream, the Gorrichaneka Erreka.

A bit further in France I find this camping-spot
(N43 03 25.4 W1 16 04.3 H 1237m)

I'm contented: hadn't expect to cover this serie of bm149-154 today. And I found 145!
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