Hair and salt water.

That's good news, absent!
I use plenty of moisturiser on my shins and feet at home, but as I am swimming several times a day and walking on hot sand and pebbles, it wouldn't be much good.

I remember reading Born Free many years ago and Joy Adamson described how Elsa's coat became luxuriant and shiny with sea bathing. What's good enough for the world's most famous lioness...

I also get cracks in my fingers and thumbs and use Germolene Nuskin which is like clear nail varnish and is very good. It is especially good used overnight.

I keep my heels well rubbed down with a coarse foot file and put rich moisturiser on and that seems to keep the dreaded cracks at bay.

The owner suffers from the same thing and has given me some cream called 'Cracked Heel Cream'! The kitchen has also given me a small jug of olive oil, but I will try the cream first.

Is it the oil-based Germoline or the (comparatively) newer water-based one? The oily one is great for cracking skin but not the watery one. Vaseline would be good. Does the hotel have a first-aid box you could raid?

My heels usually crack in the cold, not the heat, but I am walking on sand all the time.
No, impossible to get anything, as the hotel is not near any shops.
I have got sand shoes but I can't wear them with my fins.
I wear socks as well as a tee shirt and old cotton trousers when snorkelling - otherwise I would burn to a crisp.
I brought Germolene and plasters with me, and I have found a roll of white tape in my suitcase, the kind used for electrical work, and that should keep the plasters on tomorrow. I brought it in case my facemask needed adjusting - it is always handy.
I will ask the kitchen for some olive oil - they are so grateful for my custom I think they will give me anything - there are still only two other guests.

I don't suppose you will be able to get Boots products where you are at present, Greatnan. You might massage your feet with a little olive oil if you can cadge some from the kitchen, just to keep them lubricated. Best put some socks on if you don't want it all over your sheets!

My hairdresser sprays my hair with sea salt spray to tousle it ...can't be all that bad the amount I pay him

baubles sorry no irreverence intended to anyone but I am currently staying with the DGCs and a vision of Mr Jeremy Fisher and his galoshes popped into my head
greatnan I use Lotil cream for nasty little cuts which sometimes open up on fingers and thumbs, very soothing.

Ah Greatnan, I feel your pain. That happens to me in the heat too, or rather it used to. Now I slather Vaseline on my feet in the sun & often wear those slip on water shoe thingies - cant remember what they are actually called - in the sea.

Use Boots Number 7 foot cream. Put it on at night. Cover with a pair of socks. In four days your feet will be fine. Promise.

My feet are the only bits of me that are suffering. They have become so dry that a little split has developed on the heel - it does that in Winter, too. It is quite painful if sand gets in it, and plasters just don't stay on in the sea. Still, mustn't grumble, as they say - the sun is shining, the sea is blue and the coral is waiting.

My dry hair is usually ok as long as I rinse the salt water out regularly. Wearing a hat has to help too.

Salt water is supposed to be good for feet, isn't it?

Yes