We set off from camp and passed by the lovely driveway where we had stopped to take pictures a week earlier. The lavender was more in bloom so we stopped to take pictures of the lavender with the olive trees and cypress lining the driveway. We then stopped off to stock up on some groceries before heading to the small town of Rustrel. We arrived in camp and once we settled in, we headed straight for the pool. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the pool and basking in the sun.

The next morning we woke up early to go visit the "Colorado Provençal" which was another old ochre quarry. This one was much larger than the old quarry in Roussillon and there were several free trails you could take through it. We chose the longer loop since it was only 5.5 km and thought that we could beat the heat by leaving early. Anoop had instructions from the campsite owner and we set off at 7:45 along the road. We turned off shortly as per the instructions onto a smaller side road which meant we didn't have to walk with all the traffic. It was very pretty and we kept our eyes peeled for signs. We hit the first intersection and the sign pointed straight ahead so we continued on. We passed by a farm with the most birds I have ever seen in one yard – there were tons of pigeons, chickens, and geese wandering and flapping everywhere. We arrived at the next intersection and didn’t see any signs pointing to the Colorado Provençal. There was one sign pointing back the way we had come with the direction “ochre path”. We couldn’t see where we were supposed to have turned, but we walked back the way we had come and returned to a cluster of houses where there was another sign pointing to the ochre path. We turned and headed through the cluster and came to a small stream. We thought that was a bit strange, but crossed anyhow, hoping to see another sign on the other side. No such luck – we arrived at a junction with three paths and no indication of which way to go. So we headed back up and returned to the first junction we had hit. The sign clearly said that we had gone the correct way, but we asked a lady for directions. She said that we could continue down the road, cross a stream and then go left until we hit the quarry paths. We thought about doing that, but figured that a path through the forest would be slower and we really wanted to get to the quarry. We returned the way we had originally gone and went straight through the intersection that wasn’t signed. Sure enough, a bit further on we came across the signs for the ochre paths. We headed up to the parking lot since there was supposed to be a visitor’s centre, but it was closed. The parking attendant gave us the key to the washrooms so that we could re-fill our water which was very nice of him. We finally started out on the quarry path at 9:30, feeling rather frustrated that we had already walked about 4 kms, wasted a lot of time and not beat the morning heat.

We were glad that there was partial shade on most of the path since it was already getting quite hot out. We headed straight uphill for a view down over a bowl with paler cliffs all around. They weren’t the yellow or red we had seen in Roussillon, and we wondered if this colour was what was left when they had removed all the ochre and reached the layer underneath. We continued on the path, climbing up and down a fair bit before arriving at the “white desert”. It was quite impressive and we sat and admired the view for a bit before moving on. We saw remnants of the old rail system which they must have used to transport the ochre and pipes for water leading off somewhere where we figured they had actually processed it. We then arrived at a viewpoint over lots of columns that had been left behind. They were quite neat to see from above and they were closer in colour to what we had seen in Roussillon. The view over the valley was also great and we could see vineyards and a few lavender fields off in the distance. We went around the corner and arrived at another viewpoint. This time we were looking down onto a huge bowl with shades from the white we had seen earlier, to yellows, oranges and reds. We could see people scrambling around on the ochre hills below and were glad we hadn’t worn light clothing. We descended through the woods until we were down in the bowl ourselves. By this time it was just after 11 and was very hot in the sun – this part of the quarry was called the Sahara and was certainly on its way to feeling like we were in a desert. We climbed up on one of the mounds and had great views all around. All of the different colours were quite amazing! We finished up our loop and were glad when we were back in the trees for a bit. We stopped off at a café to pick up a few postcards, but couldn’t bear the thought of anything warm to drink. Instead, we headed back to camp hoping that the road wasn’t fully in the sun. We arrived back and immediately went for a dip in the pool to cool down. Once we’d had a swim we could think about lunch and then it was time to head back to the pool for the rest of the afternoon.

Anoop had worked up quite a sweat by the time he came to the pool because a car towing a caravan had decided to choose a spot on the second terrace of the campsite and had been unable to make it up the steep, gravelly road. They were jack-knifed on a steep corner and were at risk of colliding with the camper setup in the corner. About eight people, including Anoop, pitched in to help push the trailer up the hill. In the end, it was the remote-controlled motor (that most new trailers here are equipped with) assisted by the additional horsepower that managed to push the trailer about fifty meters uphill. That evening, we decided it was too hot to cook and were glad that there was a pizzeria right beside the campsite. We ordered a ham and mushroom pizza to take out and enjoyed a night off from cooking and dishes.