Tag Archives: Carlos and Conchita Roca

Carlos & Conchita are done: all bordermarkers visited!

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Carlos and Conchita Roca have succeeded today in their goal: visiting all esfr-bordermarkers.

The one of today – 330bis – was the last of a 4-weeks sprint to finish their project. From Bielsa / Aragnouet (325-329 and 322) to Refuge Wallon (313 & 314) to Lescun (272) to Col de Somport (296) to Le Plan (329 & 330) and finally to Benasque for no. 330bis.

Those were not the easy ones, each requiring one day of strenuous hiking and climbing. As usual with the ‘chasseurs des bornes’, they kept the difficult ones for the end. Bm330bis was done together with their son David and his ‘novia’ Noella. Also Pierre Gallart joined them and he took this photo:

 

Carlos and Conchita are now very happy and also relieved to have fulfilled their quest. It took them 10 years to do. And though as pensionados still in good health and shape, the years take their toll anyway. Congratulations for both of you. Now you can – as Carlos told me – retire for the second time and return to the status of ‘normal tourists’.

By the way, they are not the only ones to finish this year:  Sébastien Marc has only 1 or 2 bordermarkers to go and Pierre Gallart about 17 markers. And than there is Didier Roux who hopes to finish in october with his last three markers. See this blog-post.

New update of grpdesbf.nl / my Pyrenees-project getting to an end

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I’m proud and  also a bit ashamed of my last update. It took me almost a year to update my website with the trips I did last year in august and september. My excuse: I am retired ergo busy. The update-page is a good starting point for checking this update.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Within two weeks I will be back in the Pyrenees. The main target is to assist Carlos and Conchta – my cheerful friends from Barcelona – with their last 10 bordermarkers. They are not the only ones finishing this year. Sebastien Marc has only 6 markers left and there is also Didier Roux who might complete his quest in october with his last 3 bordermarkers. See also this blog-post.

I have done all bordermarkers at least twice and half of them more than 2x. A sense of ‘enough is enough’ is seeping more and more in my mind. I long for other adventures like long-distance paths in Britain and bicycle backpacking trips to the horizon. There are still some targets for spring next year (sea my to-do-list) but overall there is the desire of moving on.

But will the Pyrenees let me part that easily? After all, we loved each other for many years, the Pyrenees meant so much for me. We will see, time will tell.

The current ‘competitors’ on the ESFR-border

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Well, it’s of course no competition but the drive to find all esfr-bordermarkers is something most of us share.

A list of those who did them all, can be found on this webpage.
Some have their own list of bordermarkers but the one I use is explained on this page and a excel-checklist to use is on this page

But who are still in the race at this moment? Let’s list them.

Didier Roux
I wrote about his quest in this post and he expected to complete in 2024. However he failed to reach bm424-425 and still couldn’t find bm85bis. He will try again in october 2025.

 

 

Carlos and Conchita Roca
My friends from Barcelona work steadily on their progress. They hope to finish in 2025 and have still 14 markers to do. These are not the easy ones and that is what I see a lot: the most difficult markers are left for the final stage.

 

 

 

Sébastien Marc (see this post)
This very sporty young man has also 14 bordermarkers  tp do (mostly in the central Pyrenees) and he expects to finish in 2025.

 

 

 

 

 

 


Pierre Gallart
His accidental meeting with Carlos and Conchita Roca in 2024 brought this extraordinary man to my attention. At the same time Jerôme Loubière informed me about him.
He is extraordinary because he is the first person – as far as I know – who tried to do all bordermarkers in one go! He undertook that project in 2022 in 74 days and describes it on his website
And there is this short article and you can listen to an interview (in Spanish).

He did photograph ± 95% of the bordermarkers which leaves 40 markers still to do. Missing those 40 markers had various reasons, including an attack from a wild boar (!). He intends to write a book about his adventure and publish it in 2025. Meanwhile he is working on doing the missed bordermarkers (I guess).

Jerome Loubière (see this post)
This is the cousin of Sébastien Marc and he reported me that he did 68€% of all markers which would mean 228 markers still to do, a lot of them in the Basque country. But he already sailed to bm602.

 

 

I wish them all good luck in 2025 and remember: it’s not a competition, it’s all about the joy of exploring the Pyrenees and the concern for bordermarkers as cultural-historical monuments.

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

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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 some sad news: my beloved old-fashioned-for-ever Hôtel d’Annécy in Lourdes – so much part of my Lourdes-vibe – has closed in autumn 2023.

Read, watch and enjoy. In september 2024 I will return to the Pyrenees.

Another new kid on the block: Jean Marc Dumont

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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 early age (the ultimate dream of every Frenchman, so it seems) and never regretted that a single moment.
Now he has covered 74% of all esfr-bm’s (using the “parfait” excel-sheet on this page) and he expects to finish next year. That implies that he can well be the first to complete the esfr-bordermarkers after Corinne in 2021 and before Carlos & Conchita Roca, Sébastien Marc and Jérôme Loubière.
So far, only bm425 has given serious problems, getting in rough terrain and in fact in danger.

Special notice: he has his own mini-camper for his bm-outings: the MarKomobile which made me instantaneously jealous.

No blog, no website but you can still follow his adventures and progress on Strava. Good luck Jean Marc and let us know when you are approaching the finish.

A new spring, a new bm-season

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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 and more elaborate on this webpage.

Let’s start with my friends Carlos and Conchita Roca from Barcelona.

They have made significant progress in the last years including finishing the Pyrénées Orientales and almost the western Pyrenees. But now they are facing the long hikes in the high mountains of the central Pyrenees. We can check their results on this map.
If I import their results in an excel-file, they have still 55 bm’s to go = 92% done

Then we have the two cousins Sébastien Marc and Jérôme Loubière (see this post).

Sébastien (left) has covered 90% of all esfr-bordermarkers and considering his young age and athletic fitness, I think he will finish first.

Finally, Jérôme Loubière (right) has a slower but not necessarily less persistent pace. I estimate his progress at being 60%.

Bm602 conquered by the Roca-family

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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 accessible by boat or swimming. But recently Carlos managed to hire a boatsman from Llança to bring them to the cave. The entrance to the cave is too narrow for a regular boat so you have to swim or use a canoe for the last part.

And that was what they did on 13 august: Carlos and Conchita in a canoe and their son David and his ‘novia’ Noelia swimming, making it a family experience to cherish. In this picture, they are close to the inlet which gives access to the cave.

And here they are proudly posing before the plaque of bm602.

And then returning to the boat in the same way.

After the boat trip, reason enough to enjoy a paëlla meal.

Thus Carlos and Conchita have now covered all bordermarkers between Andorra and the Mediterranean. They have also done almost all bordermarkers on the other side of the Pyrenees (Basque country, no. 1-272).

See this new webpage to see who has done all bordermarkers or one or two of the three main subdivisions.

 

New update GRPdesBF-site

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Pleased to announce a new update of my main site, covering the 8 day trips I did in June this year. See for the details this page.

A lot of information and pictures,  might be a bit too much for some of you. If so, I suggest these two picks:
– 12 june 2021: together with Carlos and Conchita Roca climbing to bm407 and back

– 18 june 2021: one of my longest border-hikes ever.