Bet you didn’t know that your feet have 200 muscles, ligaments and tendons all of which support nearly 100 plus tons of pressure every day? They also have more sensitive nerve-endings per square centimeter than any other part of your body. In this post I have reviewed a lovely pair of Hi-Tec hiking shoes taken on my Gorilla Highlands Trek in Uganda.

On a slightly unattractive note, we sweat out nearly half a pint a day through out feet’s 25000 sweat glands and they can sometimes toes can replace missing fingers because they are, technically, both digits. The latter foot fact not being important for this review, unless I had decided to go to some kind of polar area and lost my fingers due to gangrene. Which didn’t happen at all. Moving on.

Because I in fact went on a Gorilla trek in southwestern Uganda, inside the Bwindi Impenetrable forest. To get me through this hike, Hi-Tec SA offered up a sponsorship to look after my feet, and in that I got a really snazzy pair of V-light SPHIKE women’s hiking shoes. Completely and utterly disregarding all advice I spent far too much time planning what types of sunscreen to take and forgot the cardinal rule about breaking in your new shoes before you hike. I am not proud of this oversight on my part. Breaking my new shoes in consisted of dancing around the lounge in them a few hours before my flight. That was it.

Now the average person takes about 10,00 steps every single day. For us on our gorilla trek in the mountains of Bwindi Impenetrable forest any of those 10,00 steps was for a good part of the day, done vertically and between knee high jungle foliage. And these little puppies on my feet did the job like they hand known no other destiny since they were first sewn together. I was lurching myself up, under and straight through all manner of slippery leaves, mud and vines. By hour one I was seriously starting to panic that my lack of forward planning would mean that my feet were going to be a total mess when this was all said and done. I anticipated the painful beginnings of blisters. By hour two, feet were still going strong with no pain whatsoever. Hour three and I didn’t even notice my feet anymore, I was concentrating on the incredible group of silverback highland Gorilla and family that we were moving up and down the side of a cliff face to be with.

The first shoes were invented over 5,000 000 years ago and I am so glad that technology has progressed to beyond animal skins. For the tech orientated these shoes are a lovely combination of leather and fabric and something strange called i-shield waterproofing and Vibram rubber soles for grip. This grip I can testify worked like a bomb and stopped me on ore than one occasions from rolling about-face down a very steep jungle hills. I am happy to report that my feet didn’t have one trace of a blister on them when I peeled them off after a very long day.

Not. One.

It was so great I even opted a day later to go on another trek into an ever more impenetrable forest to look for wild chimpanzees, those shoes made me a sucker for vertical climbing punishment without even a backwards glance. They really are extremely comfortable. And honestly I could not get over the weight of them. A long time ago I took rather cumbersome hiking shoes to Gabon, they ended up weighing so much that I had to wear them on the plane, which made me look ridiculous. These shoes were so light that I easily fitted them into my bag without them costing me back pain or overweight luggage charges.

Never mind the wonderfully acceptable bush Barbie color of my beauties, listed as a divine beetroot/dune/Apollo pink. Who could not like that? It was great to finally have a pair of capable performing hike shoes that didn’t make me feel like a misplaced Steve Erwin in female form. I know that for some people looks won’t matter, but it mattered to me. I’m not sure who had the forethought when these were designed but they had feminine, quirky quality to them that I could not get enough of. Never mind that they got the job done above and beyond. The perfect marriage of form-fashion and function. Kind of just like me, if I do say so myself.

So Hi-Tec, thank-you very much for looking after a very special part of my trip, my dear, sweet wonderful feet. Many of us who travel on a regular basis and include vigorous active activities on our travels will easily admit how a good time and turn really bad if you either get sick, injure yourself or have problems with your feet.

I can’t wait to take them on another adventure, both my feet and the shoes.

Link to the shoe: Hi-Tec Women'sV-light SPHIKE

*I had to google -interesting facts about my feet- for this review. I don’t recommend you do that; it’s a rabbit hole of the weird and inappropriate.