I’ve done that and nothing happens. I remember thinking that was the portal too. I also tried fast traveling there and taking a few steps in every direction with the keyboard rather than the gamepad but nothing happens.
I’m stumped. I just started a New Game Plus, stepped into the first portal I could find, and it worked right away. Tried a few ways. There were no save game changes between the previous versions, so I don’t think it’s that.
Instead, could it be the sand? You will not travel through a portal if you fast travel to it but it is covered in sand.
To verify, we can try this. Turn off the music and environmental sounds. The only sound you should hear while at a portal is a deep sub bass. There is a binaural effect on it.
Then travel to Juncture B-C2. You’ll hear the sound if it’s not covered by sand. Then press the W or up arrow key until you hear a footstep. By then you should hear the portal ramping up, and it will transport you at the end of that audio sequence.
If it’s covered in sand, unfortunately you need to wait. Once you travel through the first time, you will discover the other side, and can use the next and previous hotkeys on the destination screen to cycle them without needing to physically enter the portal.
This probably needs some work. I don’t know why that made perfect sense to me at the time. 😂