The Land of the Cathars is full of mesmerizing legends and history for my child’s eyes. I vaguely remember to have visited some castles with my dad (I even got a Knight diploma!) and my mum has always nourished an unbelievable passion for Cathars, which probably goes through family then.
Yet, like a lot of my homeland’s realities, I have taken some distance for the past few years, looking for foreign mysteries on Celtic lands, forgetting my own had some unfathomable secrecy of the Beyond. This half obligated – half chosen immobility has therefore some good and opens everyone to some hidden opportunities.
As for me, it reconciles me with my childhood castle dreams that I might now gaze at with my historian apprentice’s eyes and my imagined witch’s soul.
As for me, it brings me towards this fantasized quest and leads me to the most legendary places of all, to the most mysterious lands of all, to the most secret constructions of all, through my new category: The esoteric and telluric Aude.
I therefore (almost) kept the best for the end…! Planned for Fall equinox, then Spring, the mystical End of the World’s mount kept escaping to my wandering due to bad weather or lack of time. Thus, I chose another extraordinary day – May’s Lunar eclipse – to balance my poles reversing the Earth’s by hiking the PECH DU BUGARACH.
The wonderful month of May, having gently done its work with automnal weather, had finally decided to cover its sky with blue that Wednesday. Although my arrival in Bugarach village was sheltered by a hazy Pech… I was all ruffled with excitement despite the early hour and the lack of sleep, I was too impatient in my heart: that good old reversed Pech had played footsie for almost a year and I was quite ready to ride it with the same passion I was ready to ride my own life.
Time for me to reach the trailhead on the Col du Linas and Bugarach had cleared its mind. Good thing, I needed all its lucidity to respond to my quest.
Opposed to what happened at Rennes Le Château, I came to my own Everest, free of any preconceived idea and cleared from any projection. I had no telluric expectations, I was full of my own esoteric mood, my head full of meditations, and I was about to welcome anything and everything (which was quite timely since Mister Bugarach do the exact opposite of anyone). It had been quite a ride since last summer: expectations I didn’t apply to the Pech had also allowed me to free my actions and words.
And, in Bugarach’s case, knowing its reputation, I think I was quite admirable to present with no majestic hope. As, for those who have never heard of Pech Bugarach, the place has positively a reputation in esoteric informed circles! The little village and its peculiar mountain come with many legends: UFOs, wormholes, galactic gates (the peak, made of cavities, is believed to shelter an extraterrestrial underground base) and other strange lights in the sky.
But the whole world mostly heard about Bugarach during the pseudo end of the world in December, 21st 2012. Indeed, according to certain Maya calendar’s interpretations, it was supposed to be the only place where you could survive the apocalypse. Hundreds of journalists and many afraid citizens of the world scrambled there.
Do all those theories come from the reversed mountain’s geological curiosity? For, as a rare geological event, the Pech of Bugarach is formed by an anticlinal fold, or a recumbent fold. With the Iberian and European plates’ convergence, creating the Pyrenees, the sedimentary rocks folded and then broke. The order of the geological strata has been reversed and limestone strata, over 135 million year-old, have been placed above younger formations (15 million year-old).
That abnormality would have, according to some rumors, reversed the site’s magnetic poles. However, lot of prophecies number, among all Apocalypse’s disasters, the Earth’s magnetic poles’ inversion, which would lead to the world turning the other way around. Then, the already reversed Bugarach was a safe shelter if that inversion was part of Maya’s predictions.
May you believe or not, Bugarach still is one of very telluric places and anyone comes there, full of his own personal myth and led by his vital quest, would feel regenerate in his body, soul and spirit. Even if he only came to hike. Because the Corbières highest point, those legends being true or wacky, is quite magnificent and imposing, ideal for healing.
Then, I humbly presented myself, full of my personal myth and guided by my own vital quest, to Bugarach’s feet (or was it its head since it is reversed?), finally freed of haze in this Wednesday of May. I chose the shortest trail and I started in the heart of the matter since the Pech welcomes you with no introduction, head first on steep hill. The first kilometre is not the prettier, muddy and blind. And, if getting higher gives you a better and better look of landscapes, it is not before certain vegetal arch you are truly able to enjoy the scenery.
Then, from the colored meadow, it was quite pleasant to meander through mossy trees and wild flowers. I was probably expecting (it seems I still had some expectations after all…) a rocky and dry land from the beginning to the end… As the private and rocambolesque intertwined trees softly wrapped me, instead of aliens, I was readier to face Irish fairies. Maybe did they whisper, invisible, to my heart to help my revelations and liberations.
And when I, for the first time, recognized white spread Pyrenees behind morning fog, I switched to the moon and the stars, moved by the endless world in front of me and my present.
I then gazed at the vampires’ teeth shaped limestone massif (?) – or was it granite? to be sure, I will write the rocky massif – getting closer to my neck, I couldn’t believe I had been so fast in my ascension! But I was wrong… I had forgotten about the rounded peak since I had lost track of it, I thought Bugarach had come to its sharp end. Hell no! Then, to avoid fake joy and failed hope, measure your pace, a bit of rocky climbing remains.
When you are an early – and happy! – bird though, the last stretch is kinda easy, in between wind and clearance; happy to get an extra scenery. Eager to feel Pech’s softness under your courageous feet.
Once on the top of the pop, I hope you have enough to get warm, it would be too bad to have survived Covid-19 only to die from pneumonia (that being said, it is only if you hike during spring or fall; during summer time, you should bring instead your portable parasol!).
As for me, after Alaskan winter, I was ready for anything and I enjoyed this roof of the world preciously given to my solitude. I got the entire Earth under my feet and Sky above my head, all just for me! After catching my breath (let’s be honest, even if it was less difficult than I thought, it was still quite a hike), I had all the time I needed to Salute the Sun and the Kingdom of Heaven as deserved. Hell yes, upward and downward dog is the closest thing I could imagine to root my mind and reverse my own polarity, tuning with the Pech. It was the most powerful thing I got to open the gate to my own brand new world.
Then, feeling the silent wind turning into future hikers’ chats, I made a clean sweep, light hearted and transformed souled. Ready to go down the Earth, with a few more looks around this unchanged and yet changing scenery.
Ready, not without a stop by the Fountain of Love in order to dissolve my ancient skin, to ride my own new life.
The two main Pech du Bugarach trails
The shortest path: 6,80 km – around 3.30 hours
Leave your car at the Col du Linas on the D14 on the parking lot. The departure from here is very well signposted between two signs related to local wildlife.
Head south on the wide path.
(km 0.64) Turn right and walk on an almost flat road for about 600 m.
(km 1.23) Turn left 90° and follow the clearing on the right before entering the forest again. The path slopes further to the left towards the Pique Grosse. Once at the foot, continue the climb to the left.
(km 2.47) A small promontory stands out from the road with an unobstructed view of the valley. Continue until a junction nearby.
(km 2.61) Ignore the path on the right that lead to the Pique Grosse and take a left to tip over the other side. (It’s a bit tricky, since I’m zero in mileage, I almost screwed up! In fact, it’s simple, it’s the first bifurcation and if you look closely, you will see that there is the yellow tag also on the left path (even if it was not an authorized path originally). And at worst, if the path you are on starts to really go down a lot, you will know that you are not on the right one and you will turn back to avoid going down to go up: the left path will lead you to Bugarach as well only witsteepier hills.)
(km 2.93) After passing dying bushes, finally walk in the open to the summit you see. Take advantage of these last hundred meters of elevation to observe the vultures.
(km 3.39) Arrival at the top of the Pech de Bugarach and return by the same route to the car park.
(Source : Visorando)
The longest path by Bugarach’s window: 11,80 km – around 6 hours
Leave the car in the small car park after the village of Bugarach, in a bend.
In the hairpin bend, take the Cathar Trail opposite, it is the GR®367 marked Red and White. Along the Lake of Vène.
(km 0.9) After the lake and shallow waters, take the Canadian Passage. Walk along the GR® stream. Reach the crossroads of the Cascade des Mathieux.
(km 2.34) Take the road to the left to reach it.
(km 2.49) Return to the previous junction. Take the GR® again to the left. Cross the creek and get to the D45 road.
(km 3.31) Cross it and continue across the street to quickly reach the crossroads of the GR®36 and the GRP® of the Fenouillèdes Tower.
(km 3.87) Turn left on the GR®36. The first part goes into the wood (muddy after rain). Exit in a large meadow often windy, then reach the foot of the rocky tip of the Pech from Bugarach to the Window.
(km 4.76) The window of Bugarach: Attack the climb on the rock by a gully where you really have to put your hands. The top is sporty in foggy and windy weather and the elements are strong. Reach the top of Pech de Bugarach.
(km 5.06) Start an easy descent through the “reversed” short path. Find yourself at the bottom of the rocky tip of the Pech from Bugarach to the Pique Grosse.
(km 6.27) Continue east then north to reach the Col du Linas and the D14 road.
(km 8.35) Turn left on the D14 or continue a little further north via the GR® which passes through the center of the village.
Find the starting parking lot.
(Source : Visorando)
Fleeting Wor(l)ds 
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