RickshawFan
Verified Outdoor Recreation Specialist
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2013
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Yes, Greece BAKES. The air is salty, too, on those islands: draws liquid out of you. UV is very high, and many times people don’t wear long sleeve shirts (e.g. “safari shirts”) and long pants. And, for a hike, sturdy shoes: twist an ankle in that heat while on a hike, and you’re toast. IME.I was in Greece the last two weeks in May and the highs on the islands we were on were only like mid 70's but it was HOT. I live in Florida and so I expected to be chilly there but that was the hottest 75 degrees I have ever experienced in my life. The sun is just brutal too. Hearing about all these people going hiking on warmer islands on days where it is so much hotter than when I was just there a couple weeks ago sounds like a recipe for disaster. One of our lodgings on one island was up 247 steps! Not all in a row or even steps, like irregular meandering steps. That was rough.
It’s become very easy in the US to get a UPF shirt; Australia has been on to this for years.
I seem to recall you could get a severe stomach ache if you drank a coke in sweltering heat. At any rate, a four-hour hike would require several liters of water to stay hydrated (wild guess, maybe a couple of gallons?). Definitely more than one liter an hour (I’d drink that in the woods in warm weather on the East Coast). And you’d need some to pour on your head. A gallon of water weighs 8 pounds, excluding the container. I really think these hikers are not likely to be hiking around with 16 lbs of water. And imagine a pack containing 2 gallons of, say, milk: no way!