There's some debate about boots. As an overlander you will end up at the very least stumbling around a border crossing for a few hours in your boots. You might want to stop at some cultural attraction and wander round for a few hours. Inflexible MX boots are not the answer.

However, you do want some protection as feet and ankles are very easy to break. A lot of people plump for slightly more sturdy than hiking boots.

The trouble is, shins are quite easy to break too (see Ted Simon's broken leg in Northern Sudan(?) on his second trip).

I spent a long time looking at the problem of boots. Then I got wind of Gearne SG-10s. Full-on MX boots with a bit of the old supple Italian leather. You're not going to tramp in them but you can walk around without doing some bizarre robot dance thing.

In practice, you weren't going to walk round Petra in your full moto-gear anyway, you were going to pop it in the ticket guy's office (helmet, suit, boots) and go round in your ordinary shoes.

I bought mine from the above but one of the soles clicked when I walked on it. That sort of thing would drive me nuts. So I sent it back and got another, which also clicked. The guys had failed to discover (or even sense) the clicking so they stopped being quite so keen to replace the boot at £25 per courier throw. So, I took a day to drive up half the length of the country, successfully demonstrated the clickery of the boots and then tried on almost every pair they had in the warehouse.

Eventually I was a winner. Sort of. Mine are the black version of the one in that picture but still have the silver tongue. Glam rock boots! (Click on the black version of the boots on their site -- luckily mine are now covered in crap so look slightly less offensive.)

They have been a treat. No problems stumbling around border crossings or wearing them all day, day after day (other than a nasty niff). They've done a pretty good job of protecting my feet too after some prangs.