Wild camping - take 1

I've broken this one into a couple of posts since otherwise it would be far to long so read the Bastille Day one first!
Monday morning started of a little slowly again but at least I had decided where to go. I had considered taking Tim up on his offer to stay and help a little but I decided to move on and have a couple of days exploring Dordogne before starting work on Thursday so off to Sarlat I went.
Kate drove me down to a little way out of Chatellerault and we said our goodbyes on the roadside, agreeing to keep in touch. I had a wonderful time staying with her and Vince and really hope to she them again sometime.
I got a lift in a matter of moments to the SE corner of Poitiers with a young woman going home for lunch with her family. I didn't catch her name but she was nice enough to go out of her way to find a good hitching spot at a big , busy layby so I was fairly happy with that.
Within minutes I had my next lift from another young woman, this makes a change cause in the UK women on their own don't often stop. Vivianne teaches french as a foreign language and has worked everywhere from Middlesbrough (near where I used to live in England) to Ethiopia! At the moment she's looking for a job in Australia and hopes to move over there permanently- not a bad idea really. We parted ways in Limoges as she was turning east but we had a great chat and sing-a-long to some bad British pop music on the radio - its crazy how much of that there is in France!
After a 15 minute wait I found a lift to Give - about half way between Limoges and Sarlat. The guy didn't speak any English but we got by in french and to be honest I was just happy to have the air conditioning on!
He dropped me off near a couple of shops and 'a good place to eat'....Since I wanted to save the food Kate gave me for if I couldn't get food where I camped into McDonalds I went. Thankfully it wasn't the worst meal I'd ever had and it did fill a gap so off I went, feeling a little dirty for having eaten in the monster of all fast food chains. I tried walking out of town a way but as with all these places town spreads out for miles so a couple stopped and offered to drive me a couple of villages down the road where I'd be more likely to find a lift.
As they expected I had a lift with minutes although it was a bit of a funny one. First the woman had to go and get her son from the lake where her sister had taken him swimming with her family. So we spent a little time there while the kids played although the sister was casually wandering around topless which was drawing a bit of disapproving attention to the entire group, not that she noticed. Once we left the lake we stopped by sister no.2 to see if she knew any good wild camping spots. They decided on a little bit of woodland near a small château where there was even water and a toilet available! It was a good few kilometres from Sarlat but I wasn't planning on exploring until the morning plus they gave me  a pack of biscuits so I had plenty of food.
The only problem with wild camping here is it's a bit of a grey area as to whether it's allowed. Just in case I hauled my bag into the deepest part of the woods I could find and made camp, trying to avoid as many tree roots as possible. By that time there was nothing else to do but turn in for the night.
I had a fairly early start as I needed to get the tent out of the way without being spotted walking out of the woods with my rucksack. With the help of a kind old Dutch gentleman I made it to Sarlat - asked asked for directions thinking it wasn't far and he gave me a lift instead.
Sarlat is a gorgeous old town with most of it's original medieval buildings still in tact. I looked around as much as is possible with a huge rucksack slowing you down but finally I admitted defeat. The steep winding streets of the town are definitely better explored sans the bag. I grabbed a cold drink in the town centre - 3€50 for a fanta!! - before walking out to the edge of town. I stopped by a small bar for a bottle of water and double-checked my directions which isn't easy when my French is apparently incomprehensible. As I sat inside making the most of the air con in walked Pierre. We conversed in mostly French with splashes of English and by the sound of it he had travelled a bit in his early 20's but mostly following the dance-scene.
Once I'd finished my water I decided it was time to move on and walked to the outskirts of town where I eventually found a lift with a young Belgian couple who were off hiking - how they can hike in that weather I've no idea! Anyway they drove me about 9km up the road where they thought I would get a lift more easily, which would have been true if it weren't for the fact that on the necessary side of the road there was a huge cliff face restricting parking possibilities drastically.
Fortunately after 20 minutes and a lot of people ignoring me - including a nice big,  empty 4x4 from Scotland - I got a lift. James, Jonathan and Debbie were on holiday from England for a couple of weeks and were happy to drive me all the way to the campsite I'd found online - Domaine de Barbe. I would have continued to wild camp but in this climate showers, or camping spots near water, are much more desirable! I just quite happy to find that since I was only using electricity very briefly I didn't have to pay for it 7€ overall!
The place was quite out of the way so I just spent the evening reading then had another early night.
Well you'll be happy to hear that I'm almost caught up so the next couple of posts will maybe be a bit shorter. Still working on getting my photos on - bear with MRE just a little longer - thanks!
See you next time!