28?

Yesteraday was SO HOT! But it remained so into the night. This morning the first person left, banging the door, at 4:00. The next repeated the early morning call at 5:00 so I got up, dressed, had breakfast etc before 6:00 at which time I was able to pack. A bunch of us left at 6:30 and after the usual hassle of getting out of the town, we were on the track beside the road. With the opening of the motorway much of the traffic has gone anyway so walking beside the road was notn so interesting or attention-demanding as the fact we were walking beside a swiftly flowing river and a strip forest. We made good time and I was in Vega de la Valcarce by 10:30. The new Brazilian albergue did not open until 1:00 so I walked to the municipal one, booked, had shower, washed, had lunch, all before 1:00.
Then there was some serious bed rest and book reading. Actually just before that was the most dramatic event of the day for me. I removed a plaster from my smallest left foot toe and thought decent advice was needed. When I showed the Farmacist (my spelling is WRECKED!) she said O my God and she wasn´t being an American teenager for the day. The toe is pink to just beyond the joint and is then a ghastly white. I will lose the toenail eventually and she impressed upon me the necessity of keeping it Iodined. So, iodine, gauze, and something to keep the gauze in place, changed twice a day. Oh well, so long as it doesn´t become infected, and I can continue walking.
The albergue is OK - a bit old and rundown but the kitchen is open on one side, there is a small eating area, a large open room with stadium seating and too few WCs. The newer one is better, but I´m not complaining. Vega is a tiny place but well eqipped with three banks, two supermercados and one tienda, a panaderia, and a couple of cafes. In summer "they" dam the river and there is a most pleasant swimming area and shaded resting place.
Tomorrow several of us are having our bags taken to O Cebreiro so we can walk the hardest steepest climb of the Camino relatively unencumbered. I will still take water, a little food, poncho, and something warmish as the weather can change up there in an instant.
Time to go prepare the meal.
God bless you all.
John