OH my feet!

I went walking today, with a friend.  We had a perfect day, the weather was spectacular, the route was gorgeous, we did 50K...

my legs are a little tired....

the problem was my shoes.  OH my feet!!!!

I wore these shoes which I have worn running and they are great for going running for an hour or so.  GREAT!
I went walking for 12 hours or so.

They weren't great.

The initial problem lies in that mesh.  See the mesh?  Covers most of the shoe and lets in VAST quantities of sand.  VAST

This in itself is an irritant, but when you couple it with insoles that are perforated, with little tiny perforations over the entire shoe....what happens is this.  The sand comes into the shoe, it gets embedded into these tiny holes by my feet as I walk, particularly under the spots with the most pressure.  Then what happens is that as I walk, the insole, as it should collapses a bit under my foot to provide cushioning.  Sadly the rocks and sand do not.

The effect is walking for 50K on 50grit sand paper.

My feet are DESTROYED!

I have never had so many blisters.
Never.

After one really big one (that covered about half the ball of my foot) exploded - and that was an interesting sensation, I removed the insole, but then the shoe was too big and blisters appeared in places that had been fine up until then...

OH my feet!