border borderXing guide. ing guide.

BorderXing between Spain (Port Bou) and France (Cerbere).

Friday 12 October 2001.

Grading: 4

Type: green border

Intent:

To reach French/ Spainish border and cross.
Depending on remaing time (determined by return train to barcelona)
either walk to Cerbere or return directly to Port Bou.

Equipment taken:
Journey
Waking up in barcelona we caught the train to Port Bou
with a journey time of 2 hours 30 minutes.

port_bou_hb

At Port Bou we East inland up a track running alongside a dry river.

track_back

After about half an hour the track split, we followed the sign for el Panta

decision_hb

and just past the house on the right turned off the track to the right
and headed uphill on the.

footpath_hb

According to the map there should have been a footpath leading
off to the right after serveral hundred meters leading to Corral del Bac.

lost_hb

down_hb

vegetation_hb

We could not find a path, but beat a line through very dense
down into the gorge and up to Corral del Bac. DonŽt do this.

corral_rest_vh

make_fire_hb

From Corral del Bac we found the path we were searching, but also one
not marked on the map going down back into the valley. This is the one
we later followed back to Port Bou. We followed this path North uphill
until within a hundred meters of some bee hives. We then turned right off
the path and headed straight uphill to Dolmen del Coll del la Farella,
which lies directly on the border.

upwards_vh

A small piece of wire marked the border, this could have been someone
marking their land though.

border_wire_vh

The border at this point also has a drivabletrack running along it,
probably for patrol use. From Coll del la Farella the town of Cerbere
is in view along with the route leading to it. Conversely we were in
good view also, so it is recomended that if you are going to continue
down into France then donŽt hang around this area for long.

At this point we decided to head back to Port Bou and catch the last train
back to Barcelona. We descended the slope to the path by the bee hives
and then followed this all the way to the track at the bottom of the valley.
Take this route when going uphill, its not marked on the map we had, but
starts where Barranc de les Costes splits off from the main river.

Once back on the it only takes 20 minutes to to reach centre of Port Bou.

Conclusion
If you were travelling by train from Spain to France, then leaving the
train at Port Bou, walking over the border via Coll de la Farella
and rejoining the train in Cebere would only add approximately 5 hours
to your journey.

A shorter but more risky route may be to go up main road between Port Bou
and Cerbere and leave the road in Spain before the border and go over the
ridge to rejoin the road in France. No path is shown on the map.


borderxing@irational.org