A new update of my main website: www.grpdesbf.nl

See for the update-details: https://www.grpdesbf.nl/esfr-html-miscellania-updatelog.html It has been once again challenging and interesting trips in april and september 2023. Among others: with Corinne Gourgeonnet searching for the Croix de Malafrenor and the Bidaubus-crosses, 3-days of backpacking in the increasingly dry Eastern Pyrenees and with Carlos & Conchita Roca their first wild camping experience. Also digesting […]

Jean Marc did them all (and very fast)

Jean Marc Dumont was a new and promising star in our field and now he has already reached his zenith: on 4 september he did his very last bordermarker: bm602 (with a kayak). And he did them all astonishingly fast: in 3 years! I already introduced Jean Marc (aka Marko) in the previous post and […]

Another new kid on the block: Jean Marc Dumont

A tip from Corinne Gourgeonnet: Jean Marc Dumont, a young man of 64 who is also aspiring to do all esfr-markers. He once started as a co-walker along the bordermarkers and now continues on his own with impressive trips on his MTB or by foot. As a former air traffic controller, he retired at an […]

A new update of my main website: www.grpdesbf.nl

See for the update-details: http://www.grpdesbf.nl/esfr-html-miscellania-updatelog.html The ultimate highlight of last year was swimming to bm602: I have now visited every bordermarker at least twice with at least one year difference. Will that be a farewell to the Pyrenees? Not at all. There will always be a reason – at least for old times’ sake – […]

A new spring, a new bm-season

The weather is softening, the snow is melting and the days are getting longer. The time has come to plan new Pyrenees-trips along the bordermarkers. Who are the main players in the heroïc field of finding all esfr-markers? A list of the current 9 men/women who did them all, can be found on this page […]

I did all esfr-bordermarkers (twice!)

Today I swam to bm602, the last of the esfr-bordermarkers in a cave on the Mediterranean coast. Accessible only by boat or by swimming. I trained this summer in open water swimming and after a failed trial a few days ago, I succeeded today in good weather and a calm sea. And thanks to the […]

Bm602 conquered by the Roca-family

Carlos and Conchita Roca (website) are proceeding steadily on their quest to do all esfr-bordermarkers. They started in the eastern Pyrenees years ago; the only marker missing there was bm602. But yesterday bm602 was finally conquered: see their own story. Bm602 is a special one: in a cave along the Mediterranean coast, it is only […]

Bm420bis decapitated

This marker is relatively young. It was placed in 1997 after a Spanish engineer had discovered that the borderline between bm420 and 421 was presented wrongly on the maps and didn’t follow the real watershed. See this page for the whole story. At my first visit in 2011, bm420bis was still in perfect health after […]

New update of my main website: www.grpdesbf.nl

I’m pleased to announce a new update of my website on the bordermarkers of the Pyrenees. See for the update details: http://www.grpdesbf.nl/esfr-html-miscellania-updatelog.html Gradually I am approaching the end of my project to visit en document all esfr-bordermarkers. And to design a coast-to-coast hiking trail that connects the bordermarkers: the GRPdesBF. I have visited almost every […]

Bordermarker-bashing in the Basque Country: 3 new cases

The esfr-bordermarkers in the Basque country are not safe. Recently the markers 76 and 100 have disappeared and no. 101 has been broken off: For Basque nationalists, the esfr-border should be non-existent, cutting in half a region that should be an independent whole. There is an iconic picture of the ‘execution’ of bm098 in which […]