Bois de Paiolive

For the second walk i'd parked in a Church car park which was on a slope so i can't sleep here. Honestly try and sleep on a slope. It's not comfortable.
The first part of the walk was through another small old village. There was this sign above a door saying something about ancient communal pain.

 It was actually an old bread oven but i liked the idea of the whole village getting together and beating each other with sticks.

I left the village and walked up a rocky path up the side of the valley. Actually got lost here but this was the only time.
There were even more limestone cliffs and geological escarpments. Seen my first person.
There was this cool, seemingly abandoned building. it had a locked gate and walls round it. I was thinking about going in but i could hear voices.

I continued the path and i met a group of people whose language i didn't recognise. They didn't speak English or much French. We struggled to communicate in French for a bit before giving up. They just wanted to know the way. I'm sorry buddy, can't help ya. Might get a multilingual t-shirt with that on.
I explored the cliffs a bit more but kept bumping into people. Usually families with kids. I think it must be Spring holidays or something.
I accidentally ran out some bushes and scared an Asian kid and their parents. Then the path went down a really narrow, rocky ravine and they were moving really slowly in front of me. I thanked them for letting me past. Then i saw these cool rocks to climb but thought, if i climb them, i'm gonna have to squeeze past them nervous Asians again. So i had to leave it.
Then i saw this cool cave. Oh come oonn?! It looked difficult to get down. By the time i would be out, they would have over taken me again. I thought i'd come back later with a rope and head torch.

I carried on the path which was getting narrower and more rocky. The forest was dense. There were large rocky outcrops all over the place, some so tall, they were breaking through the canopy. Some of  which i couldn't resist climbing. Actually quite a lot. This walk was supposed to be 3 hours but took more like 5.

Eventually the path lead to a cliff, overlooking a huge canyon with a river going down it. The path lead down along the edge of this cliff. This part was really busy as well. There were large groups of people sitting around, blocking the path. I was jus jumping over them like some kind of obstacle course. What are you doing?! This is a walk, not a sit!

The path lead back into the dense forest with all the limestone structures. Sometimes leading to large limestone pavements. I've never been to somewhere as interesting at this before. Did a lot more climbing. There were also more caves here and there. None of them lead to anywhere. Sometimes they had a nappy at the end.

There was a nappy at the bottom of this one.

View from inside a grike.
I didn't fall in. It was a careful and controlled descent.

I kept passing groups of people that i'd seen earlier in the day. I couldn't understand how. I was going round in a large loop but there were multiple ways to go.
On the way back to me van, i'd left the forest and was walking down a road. This old man came up to me and started talking. I said i was English. He didn't care. I think he was telling me about a drinking fountain. I hope he was cos i hadn't brought my bag cos it was only supposed to be a 3 hour walk. Turns out there was a fountain but i was only 20 mins from my van anyway.

I got back to me van and drove to the next walk! Think it was about 16:30 now and i'd been walking since 08:30.
I drove literally just down the road 5 mins. I don't know why the Visorando map didn't say park here instead.
But now i had to walk back to that cave which was at least an hour from here. I went a different way which i was hoping would be quicker.

Saw a toad.

When i got to the cave, my rope wasn't long enough. Fine waste of time and energy that was.
So i went back to me van.
The next walk was right by where i'd parked, a small loop through the limestone forest. Kinda rushed it cause i was tired and it was getting dark. There were even more cool limestone structures and more densely concentrated.

This bit reminds me of the Aztec level on Time Splitters

There were many limestone pavements like this. You can see them from Google satellite view.

Big grike on that one.  

Near the end was a big cave. There was a sign saying don't go in. But there wasn't anything in there. Not even a nappy.