Today was day 5 and a longer 14 miles to get to Amenal. Elu had informed us that Amenal wasn’t a town or even a village and so there would be nothing to do when we arrived there. For us today would therefore be about the journey rather than the destination kind of day!
After breakfast Bridget and I left the comfortable Domus Gallery guesthouse and set off at just before 9 am. Others in the group had left about an hour before us!
As we were leaving Aruza we had our pilgrim passports stamped by a nun.
For much of the day we passed through woodland again.
After walking for about an hour and 40 minutes we stopped at this great little coffee shop and Rushil came and joined us here for some of the 30 minutes or so we had spent there.
As we continued walking through the woods we could hear some soft relaxing music and soon came across some spiritual signs and a ‘guru’ with his little dog next to him. El Libro del Camino means ‘the book of the way’. Yep – he had a book to sell!
A number of such signs were propped up nearby to remind us how fortunate we were to be walking the camino.
And lots of corn fields of which we had seen many lining our route for the last 5 days.
Time for lunch! With a longer route today Bridget and I had decided we would stop and spend some time having lunch. For anyone passing through I highly recommend lunch in the O Empalme restaurant along Cala Santa Irene. It is located just across the road from the hugely busy O Ceadoiro which is the first place you arrive at.
We had called into O Ceadoiro but after waiting for 20 minutes to even enquire about a menu to then be told the food would take another 40 minutes we decided a change of plan was necessary.
We headed across the road to O Empalme which looked to be closed at first. Thankfully they were open and in contrast to O Ceadoiro we were delighted to find the setting was quiet and tranquil with just a handful of locals and a couple of pilgrims.
O Empalme offered a set meal of pork, chips and salad, a drink and a coffee for 12 euros. I hardly ever eat meat and there wasn’t a vegetarian or vegan set meal option so I had my first taste of pork in about 5 years. It was cooked so well and tasted good washed down with a glass of red wine … and it was an absolutely huge plateful!
Passing through lovely countryside hoping to walk off the overindulgence at lunchtime!
Passing through more tiny hamlets…
Showers had been forecast for today and we were fortunate to have missed them all. However in some of the open spaces in the afternoon it was windy with dust whipping up at times!
More woodland…
We had been walking for nearly 15 miles before reaching the hotel. But now after 5 consecutive days of walking it seemed much easier than our first couple of long days. We must be getting fitter 🙂
We arrived at the Amenal Hotel at 16:15 which was a plain and unattractive 70’s looking building. So I popped in (below) a picture of a rather pretty flower which was growing in the garden.
As anticipated the hotel was fairly isolated so tonight everyone stayed in the hotel bar and restaurant. I was still full from the huge lunch but still managed a piece of warm chocolate brownie.
And we had our first proper rain of the trip… heavy rain all evening… we were hopeful this would clear in time for our big day tomorrow with our grand entrance to Santiago de Compostela…
frombluetogreen.com 
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