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23 September 2026 - Bach

Camping on the hillside last night I kept waking up feeling like I could hear this beeping noise at about 2 Hz. I couldn't figure out where it was coming from and got out of my tent at one point to at least try to assign a direction of origin to it. Alas, I could not. Maybe I was hallucinating - the dream state overlapping into the waking world. I will probably never know. I gave up and got up just after 6 and broke camp in the darkness again. I started the day putting on my last clean shirt, so I really needed to find a place to do laundry that night.

Along the stone-lined paths through the scrub oak forest there were more and more of the little stone huts I would learn today are called cabanes here. On the outskirts of Saint-Jean-de-Laur I came to a spring where women used to do the washing, but now an old man has been running a coffee stop for camineros for decades. Of course I got coffee. As I sipped my coffee Marine arrived and we chatted a bit. Their plan for the day was to get to a gîte in Bach (pronounced like baash). I, having read it as a German word like the composer's name, had no idea where she was taking about. Later in the day when I realized my error I really had to laugh at myself. So often context is everything. And Sandrine had some ankle trouble, so she would be hitchhiking to Limogne. Everyone has to walk their own Camino.

In Limogne-en-Quercy I stopped to work around 11AM and stayed for lunch and to charge all my electronics. And, of course, I saw Sandrine when she came in to have a drink and also charge her phone. At one point while I was sitting there writing code on my laptop an Edith Piaf song came on and one of the waitresses started dancing with the cook in the middle of the restaurant. Second time today I've wondered if something is real. But I supposed it's just too French not to be.

After lunch the path was all rocked lined scrub oak forest with cabanes. And this part is called the "Circuit des Dolmens", so there were more of those as well. No people or animals using any of these structures makes it feel very archæological, and I bit like a dead civilization is now being reclaimed by Nature. Which, I guess, it is. In Varaire I stopped for a sandwich, wine and oranges. And then took a break as the sun set to read and drink a beer at a local restaurant. No one else is walking in the evening, so I kind of have the world to myself.

The road to Bach was more of the same, rock-lined with cabanes, but the forest did get denser and I saw some animals: three deer and a fox. It was 8PM when I reached Bach, but I thought maybe I could find a gîte to do laundry at. And a bit of a conceit that I could find Sandrine & Marine to spend some more time with them. Well, I found them on the first try, but sadly the gîte owner refused to go laundry that late. There was a full moon out, so I thnked her for her time and said goodnight to the ladies. This was also when Martin noticed me, as I would discover later. A full moon is great for walking in fields, which is pretty much what there was once the way left the road after Bach. And eventually I found a nice field to camp in. Sadly, though, the moon would still be setting long before sunrise tomorrow. But I have resolved to get a hotel tomorrow in Cahors so I can my laundry done.