The bordermarkers of the Pyrenees : all my trips
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- wednesday 31 august 2022 -
Redoing bm602 by swimming - failed trial

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Summary: part of a series of 9 daytrips in august & september 2022 across the Pyrenees. The main goal was to finish my plan to have visited all bordermarkers at least twice. It was also a kind of sentimental farewell journey, visiting old friends and cherished places.
This is daytrip 6.

Today: I try to swim to bm602 but I left too far away from the cave. Also the sea was rougher than expected. So I abort my swim and return.


Weather: overcast

track-20220831.kml
(click to open this trip in Google Earth or copy link to Google Maps; click right on this link to download gpx-version). The gps-track has not been manually  corrected which explains the inaccuracy and misalignment at some points. For cartographic backgrounds: see the cartography-page

Gps-waypoints of all bordermarkers (most recent version):
kml:  esfr-bordermarkers-all-waypoints.kml
gpx:  esfr-bordermarkers-all-waypoints.gpx (with elevation added by gpsvisualizer.com)
According to Garmin Basecamp (uncorrected track with elevation added by Gpsvisualizer.com):

Distance: 6,0 km
Max-height: 57m
Min-height: 0m
Elevation: +558m -558m
Total elevation: 1116m

Start 12:18  Finish 15:48
Total time: 3:30
Coming from the Cerdagne, I drive straight to Port Bou because of the favourable weather forecasts.

Parking at the large P near the harbor and walking along the coast


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and beach


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and picking up a trail at the other side of the bay.


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That trail - winding and going up and down - brings me


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to this point of departure.

This is where Corinne Gourgeonnet and her son Arthur left twice for their swimming to bm602.

But I find the sea at this point too rough and the coast too rocky and slippery.


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I have passed a beach earlier and that could be a better place to start, I thought.


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This is that beach.

I put on my wetsuit, fill my swimming buoy and leave my clothes in a backpack behind.


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 And I start swimming around 14:00

But the sea sways more than I expected and when I note that I approach my original point of departure, I see on my sports watch that I already swum ± 500m.

The cave with bm602 is still 750m further and that will be too much. So I stop and return to the beach in an even more swaying sea.
Returning to Port Bou


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and driving to camping Verte Rive in St-Laurent-de-Cerdans, my basecamp for the next days.


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