Borders

Crossing frontiers is a crucial part of the travelling experience.  It can be time-consuming,worrying, frightening, often fascinating and sometimes downright entertaining .   In this Podcast, travel journalists, Simon Calder and Mick Webb, who have travelled far and wide, reflect on the borders they have crossed. Like the unforgettable night  spent trying to convince the Panamanian soldiers on the frontier between Colombia and Panama that they were bona fide tourists.  Far from any road, in the thick rainforest of the Darien Gap, where most travellers were smugglers, Colombian guerrillas or paramilitaries, it took some doing. The photo shows a border marker ( and Simon). Some remote border crossings seem to have very little serious connection with monitoring comings and goings, others, ironically, have become tourist attractions in their own right: Simon discusses the origins of the name and his own experience of crossing during the Cold War. And sometimes you get the feeling that it’s the border-crossing travellers who are providing the entertainment for the frontier officials.  Do send us your own tales of frontier experiences- the good, the bad and the ugly.