The
bordermarkers of the Pyrenees : all my trips
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10 july
2010 -
Paint it black
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esfr-trip-track-20100710.kml
(click to open in Google
Earth or copy link to Google Maps;
click right on this
link to download gpx-version)
Daytrip from
Puigcerda to 'do' bm435-437I, not found on
august
28th, 2007
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For explanation of
the gps-coordinates and other cartographic backgrounds:
see my cartography page
According to the gps-tripteller
Distance: 29,3km
Duration: 10.45 in total (7.24 moving, 3.33 standing still),
1/2 hour break
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According
to visugpx
- distance : 27,5 km
- cum. elevation gain : 1167 m
- cum. elevation loss : 1128 m
- total elevation: 2295
- altitude maxi : 2301
- altitude mini : 1167
- altitude average : 1634 m
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Start:
± 7am in Puigcerda from this pension - hotel Victoria - and
finishing at the trainstation of La
Tour de Carol at 5.45pm
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Passing the border
between Puigcerda and Enveitg
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with bm467.
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It takes me about 5
hours to get to my starting point - bm435 -, including extra time
searching in vain for a track uphill and dressing a headwound of a
fallen and upset mountainbiker.
On this picture: looking ahead to the mountain yet to climb.
Move the mouse over the
picture to see the approximate borderline.
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I follow dirt roads
and tracks to get as far as I can - by road & track - to bm437,
then through the broom uphill.
This picture: looking back at the valley where I came from.
Using my gps, I'm getting close to the spot of bm437
But at first glance, I can't find bm437 and climb on. However I
confused Alain's picture of
436 with 437. In fact - as I will find out later - I'm within close
view of bm437 but I just looked in the wrong direction.
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Going
up the slope, there's no clear ridge of watershed.
But - with help of my gps - I stumble upon bm436, high on a distinctive
rock.
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The cross and
number are painted black now, as are most of the bm's of
today, which makes life of a bm-explorer much easier.
Alain Laridon's
pictures show unpainted bm's. I admire Alain. |
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Bm436 from distance
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Idem
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But now a bit
higher, looking back at the backside of bm436, that's the rock at the
left.
Notice the spanish 'hunting reserved'-signboard, also a kind of
bordermarker. Such signboards have been useful on many occasions to
recognize the borderline.
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Moving on to my
highest point: bm435, unawaringly photographed on
august
28th, 2007
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Now I'm back again
for more pictures and gps-waypointing.
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Bm435
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Bm435
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And having climbed
at bit higher, you can see the bm435-rock in the context of its
surroundings.
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Then - after a
break - going downhill all the way along the border until bm448.
First I approach and pass bm436. This picture might help others to
recognize it.
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Further descending
to the place of bm427.
The place to be is a bunch of rocks at the southern edge of a pinetree
forest you'll notice when you're descending from bm436.
Move the mouse over the
picture to see where bm437 is approximately is located.
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I now know that I
compared it with the wrong picture. And I remember a cairn.
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I'm stupified that
bm437 is so well visible from the cairn.
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How could I miss
it, even though I looked up high at the rocks, expecting the cross
there.
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I have descended
to search for bm437I and I am looking back at bm437 in the
distance, the cairn still visible.
Move the mouse over the
picture to see where bm437 is located.
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Bm437I was not
found by Alain Laridon. With help of my gps I descend in a southern
direction for 112 meters (according to the Procès-Verbal). No bm there
but by systematically encircling that spot, I find bm437I!
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Also at ± 112
meters from bm437 but more to the south-east. I'm delighted but the
fact that it is painted black, proves that there's at least one person
more who knows this location.
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Bm437I
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Bm437I
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Having climbed back
to the location of bm437 and looking in the direction of
bm437I
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The best way to
descend to bm438 is the most straighforward: just go down on your
compass through the broom using cattle trails here and there. There's a
country road down there (that's the second one, you'll cross another
one first while traversing the broom).
Move the mouse over the
picture to see where bm438 is approximately located.
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In the forest
beyond that country road - left to a meadow - you'll find bm438 on a
large rock, say 20-30 meters from the road.
In fact bm438 is in between two tiny streams. Follow them downstream.
They will merge and the stream enlarges while you pleasantly walk about
500 meters to find
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bm439.
By the way: another feat of advancing civilisation: electric
fences along the border starting from bm349 on, which proves to be
helpful rightaway.
At this point, go to the right. Follow the electric fence at your left
hand, otherwise you might stray away from the border on a kind of track
with a lot of stones. This fence wasn't there 3 years ago.
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So following the
fence at your left, the vague track (and stream sometimes) becomes a
real track and fades away near bm440.
In between you'll easily find 439I,
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bm439II and
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bm439III.
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Bm440 is actually
30-40 meters away from the fence.
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From bm440: cross
the meadow to the stream below, cross it and you'll find the
pyramid-topped bm441. This one is a change from the massive
bordermarkers we have seen seen from bm439 on.
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The country road, a
bit higher from bm441 and well visible from it, has to be followed
untill it ends at a tarmac road. You'll find bm442 in between.
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Follow the tarmac
road untill you see at your left down the road bm443.
Descend straight down through that corridor to
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bm444.
Again the fence becomes useful -> cross the 'gate' beyond bm444
and follow the fence to the
right, it becomes a cattle track which ends at a sandy country road.
Continue on that road.
An
irrigation canal is the border from bm444 on. You'll find bm446-447-448
at eithersides of the canal at a little distance right from the road.
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However, bm445 is
an exemption, standing at the north-side of that sandy road, strangely
enough. |
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Bm446 |
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Bm447 |
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Bm448
I descend to Yvrals and end my trip at the railway-station of La Tour
de Carol, just before the gathering dark clouds burst out in rain,
thunder and hail. Train to Puigcerda, back to my hotel.
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