advice on boots

Recently I started wearing a pair of Meindl air revolution lites.

They have a stiffened Vibram sole. I gave up stiffened soles a few years back but I now realise my folly! This is a semi-rigid not a fully stiffened sole- but it's not a bendy bendy one either. Crucially you can rock onto the toes levering up your weight on the sole rather than it bending up like a tennis shoe. The stiffened sole combined with padding in the heel makes for great road walking and zero blisters... yep- bottom of the sole blisters are a function of boot tightness and boot flex and sole softness. I find I get sole blisters really easy with my flexible soled Doc Marten shoes- because my sole is moving around so much, but with the Meindls your foot stays planted to the semi-rigid sole. Even though I wear thin socks I haven't had even a hint of a blister. Meindls- most not all- tend to be wider too- which also helps reduce blisters, especially when carrying a load which squashes your feet out thus causing even more blister potential.

My guess is I gave up on stiff soles because they tended to come with heavy boots. Not so now- there are plenty of light boots out there with stiff vibram soles which are great for long distance walking.