Bau Rous, Caves and Dent du Chat, leaving from La Ciotat

Description

Access: At la Ciotat, go down 'Avenue Louis Crozet' and then 'Chemin des Carrières' which follows on from it. Next take 'Chemin des Jonquières' to the left, go past the retirement home on the left and carry on to the car park.

(D/A) From the car park, take the closed road heading north-west. Ignore the path immediately on your left and continue straight ahead.

(1) Go past the path on your left (which you will take on the way back) and continue ahead on the road until you reach the next junction, just before a significant bend to the right.

(2) Leave the road and take the path which goes downhill to the right and joins up with the end of another road.
Turn left onto this road - it turns into a dead-end road.

(3) 350m further on, you need to find a barely visible passage to your left which allows you to head directly towards the 'Carrière du Loin'. Climb up by sight and using the small tracks made by animals, staying on the north slope and making sure you continue in a general north-west direction. You will be able to see the 'Route des Crêtes' (Ridgeway).

At times, the track gets wider. Then branch off to your left towards the south and continue to climb by sight in the direction of Bau Rous.

(4) The track turns into a well-marked and easily passable path and leads quickly to the summit.

(5) Take the left and follow the path, which bends widely to the left, to go back downhill towards the Archway and the caves. Go past a small track on the left which goes along the stream bed, go past the caves and carry on until you reach a junction.

(6) Veer to the left on the path which goes around the 'Dent du Chat'. Be careful as this path is barely visible and not very clear.There is a Green waymarker. Go down to the stream bed. Veer to the right at the sharp bend with the path which widens (as it follows the stream bed) and so then becomes very easy.

Go past two small quarries and continue straight on to join up with the closed road which you took on the outward leg.
Follow this road to the right, go past the crossroads again (2) and continue onwards for 350m on a straight section which you took on the outward leg.

(1) Leave the road and then take the path on the right. At the first crossroads you come to, veer to the left to meet the road which you need to follow to the right for a few metres in order to return to the car park (D/A).