Four days on the Sentier Cathare (Cathar Way) – Day 2: Bugarach to Cubières-sur-Cinoble

I woke early and was packed and ready by 6.30am.

Packed and ready to roll
Packed and ready to roll
Early morning hiker
Early morning hiker

It was a lovely fresh summer’s morning and I was looking forward to hitting the trail.

An hour or so later I arrived at the long-abandoned hamlet of Campeau.

Campeau
Campeau

The surrounding countryside and gently rolling hills reminded me of home.

Campeau
Campeau

Campeau was magical, bewitching.  I spent some time here trying to imagine how it must have been when all the ruined buildings were occupied.  I thought of  the people who had lived here.  There were no ghosts, just the birds and the odd black squirrel.

Campeau
Campeau

The path began to climb and I was soon rewarded with a fine view of the brooding mountain of Canigou, the highest peak of the Mediterranean Pyrenees.

Canigou
Canigou

I descended into the valley of the river Agly.  I took a short diversion to visit the source of the Agly.  It was midday and very hot, my feet had never been so happy to be thrust into cold water.

Near the source of the River Algy
Near the source of the River Algy

I continued on a path that kept more-or-less next to the Algy until I arrived at the Le Vieux Moulin campsite just south of the village of Cubières-sur-Cinoble.

At 10 euros the campsite was a pretty good deal with nice hot showers and bar/restaurant.  I set up camp and then took a walk down the nearby Gorges de Galamus.

Le Vieux Moulin campsite at the head of the Gorges de Galamus
Le Vieux Moulin campsite at the head of the Gorges de Galamus
Campsite
Campsite pitch

The highlight of my stay at the campsite was a wonderful dinner of hamburger in baguette with chips and a beer, oh simple pleasures!  The bar/restaurant is delightfully placed with the river Agly running alongside.

Campsite dinner and beer
Campsite dinner and beer

The only downside of the stay was knowing my air mattress would need blowing up every 90 minutes, oh well, lesson learnt (bring a repair kit next time).

See day three

3 thoughts on “Four days on the Sentier Cathare (Cathar Way) – Day 2: Bugarach to Cubières-sur-Cinoble

  1. Hi there. I am struggling to find information on the vieux moulin campsite. Can you tell me if the pitches have electricity available and whether there is any shade. The site don’t seem to respond to emails in my basic French!

  2. Hi Paul, I’m afraid I can’t tell for sure if there is any electricity available, it’s a largish campsite with decent facilities so my guess is it would have electricity but can’t say so for certain.

    There wasn’t much shade via tree cover.

    Hope you have a good time, it’s lovely countryside.

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