International Incident

A wood post, about 6' tall, braced upright by a pile of rocks, marks what we take to be the French-Spain border at Port de Boucharo.  A sign is attached to the top of it, pointing in different directions.  

Arriving at the border post, Markham decided to lock up his bike and take a hike up a rocky knoll.  Thin air,  a gnarly cable and the unsteady post all went to work, causing Markham to lose his grip on the padlock, which promptly disappeared into the rocks that held the border post upright.  Markham searched futilely for five minutes as we photographed ourselves and offered helpful tips.  

Jim, for example, seeing Markham with his head half-submerged into the rock pile, came over to ask, "What are you looking for?  Are you still looking for the border?  Isn't the post good enough for you?  What do you expect to find--a line on the ground?!!"

Eventually, an unnamed cyclist (unnamed for obvious evidentiary reasons) pulled the post out of the rock pile so that Markham had a 12" diameter hole from which to search for the padlock.  This, too, proved futile, so we placed the post back in roughly the same spot and began moving rocks to brace it upright.  That's when Markham uncovered the missing padlock, a foot away from the search site.

 Padlock found, post re-ballasted, Markham successfully cabled his bike to the post.  But we're pretty sure we moved the border a couple inches.  To which side, north or south, we're not willing to discuss without our lawyer.