A person can walk in the UAE. From December through March, usually you will be OK.

Before and after … not a good idea. Not at all.

And I had been thinking, since we took up residence near the landward end of Abu Dhabi island, that I would like to walk home from the office. But in 2.5 years I had never done it.

Today, I got it done. But it was more difficult than I expected.

Two issues:

–The online weather report suggested the high today would be 93, at 3 p.m. But it was higher than that when I started, at 11:01 a.m., and was 98 by the time I finished, in 1 hour and 13 minutes, at 12:14 p.m.

–It’s a 6.4-kilometer (four-mile) walk, and even walking at a nice clip, it’s likely to take at least an hour.

I had never gotten around to making the walk for a couple of fairly good reasons.

From December to March, the temperate months in the UAE, it was always dark by the time my work day was over, and the sidewalks here are treacherous — and that’s when you can see them. Pitted, crumbling, uneven; to walk four miles in the dark — and the route I was taking, pretty much straight down Muroor Street, is not well-lit — is asking for a sprained ankle or a broken foot. (One of my young colleagues walked out of the office a few weeks ago, didn’t see a hole, stepped in it, suffered a hairline fracture in his foot.)

I didn’t make the walk to work because I would be a sweaty mess when I arrived, and then I would sit in sweaty clothes for eight hours.

But today was a day off, and I got a ride to the office, then headed right back towards the apartment, carrying nothing except a small bottle of water.

The trip breaks into seven bits, corresponding with the very long blocks that are a characteristic of Abu Dhabi, city of.

1. From 15th Street to 19th Street, 1.7 kilometers. The streets that run across the narrow part of the island begin with Third Street, and then each succeeding street is two digits higher. Fifth, Seventh, Ninth …

This was the longest segment, because 17th Street is so small/insignificant, that it doesn’t have a street light. So, on through the aging and vaguely creepy neighborhood behind Abu Dhabi Media, and I was moving along pretty well. I’ve made this walk, which takes a person to Al Jazira’s offices and stadium, several times before.

I did it in 10 minutes.

2. I had a floppy hat. The floppy hat we bought before the trip to the game preserve in Kenya. It pretty much protected my head and face from the sun, which already was quite intense. But it also interfered with the sweating process.

The second leg was 0.7 kilometers, from 19th to 21st. I used to live in the block I was traversing, and it’s one of those blocks here with lots of car entry points, off the street, and is not at all walker-friendly. It also has a gas station which is nearly always crowded. Cars everywhere.

I certainly was very conscious of shade, at this point, and I was moving left or right looking for it … and there wasn’t much. I began to feel more than a bit warm.

3. From 21st to 23rd. This was the least shady bit of the trip. My path went past a large school complex, and a mosque. Lots of parking on the road, and no trees. By the end of this 0.8km leg, I was definitely beginning to cook. I was not thirsty, but I know enough about heat stroke that I forced myself to keep sipping from the bottle. My pulse was 141, which is a bit high for an old person.

4. From 23rd to 25th. This, and the previous leg, I had never walked. Not since I have been here. This is a particularly long block, an even kilometer, but it has two handy characteristics. First, at 23rd is where the island bends, and the route became more east than it is south, and it produced more shade.

And I sought it out. This is a block that was developed at least a decade ago, and the buildings tend to be six stories tall (that was how high they went, back then) — offering shade, when you’re going by. Also, rows of native trees, sometimes 2-3 lines running parallel to the road, offered more shade — if I was willing to walk through the sandy waste, as opposed to a brick path. And I was. I certainly was.

I did a lot of back and forth, searching for the shadiest route, sometimes going around fences or jumping over ditches to stay in it. It made the walk longer, and slower, slogging through sand, but the difference of being out of the sun was huge.

5. From 25th to 27th. I had walked this before, and I knew it was a short block, and it had a fair amount of shade. The department of motor vehicles take up a big chunk of the block, but is set well back from the main street, and trees run most of the length of the block. Again, I flitted from tree to tree. And it was only 0.6 kilometers.

6. From 27th to 29th. I was quite seriously hot, at this point. I wasn’t tired. I wasn’t thirsty. I wasn’t sweaty, perhaps because humidity was unusually low, about 25 percent. But I could feel the heat stressing my body. I wanted to be done and I was close enough that I was not going to give up, even as cabs and buses whizzed past me on Muroor.

Oh, a side note … I saw a fair number of guys watering the trees and the bits of grass along the route, and mowing some lawns, too. Most of them appeared to be from the subcontinent, and those jobs usually are held by Bangladeshis and Pakistanis.

Every one of them looked at me like I was a freak. From their perspective? An old, white Westerner in short pants (and men almost never wear short pants here) slogging down the street in the bright sun (when most of the workers are masters of staying in the shade). I could feel their questions — “has that guy lost his mind?” — directed at my back. Oh, and it would have cost me Dh2 — or 54 cents — to ride in the air-conditioned bus. A cab ride would have been about Dh10, after the first segment, and less as I moved along.

But the point was to complete the walk.

Just past 27th is another gas station. Like all gas stations in Abu Dhabi, it has a fast-food joint attached to a fairly complete mini-mart, and I headed straight for it. Not to buy a cold drink, though I probably should have, but to get into an air-conditioned environment for a few minutes. I just wandered around in the mini-mart buying nothing, looking for the spot where I could feel the cool air.

Then back outside. No businesses, the rest of the block. Some big, unfinished houses offering shade, and I stayed in it.

7. From 29th to the apartment, which is about 60 percent of the way to 31st. Distance, 0.7 km.

It was after noon now, and workers taking a lunch break stared at me. As did some of the students at the French school who apparently go off campus for lunch. Again, old Western guy, in shorts, walking in the sun. Something is wrong there.

I knew I would make it, and I got a chance to look inside some businesses I normally don’t really see, from the car, and I saw one with about 15 guys in kanduras smoking shisha. Who knew? I do, now. Walking is far more interesting than just speeding past in a car.

I went between buildings to get to the tower, which is in the middle of the block, and did an “aaahhh” as I got inside the door. I went up the elevator, and then turned on the AC inside the apartment, and checked the time.

I was glad I did it. It’s not a monster walk, and part of the year it would not be taxing. But this one was. I was heated up pretty good, and the last sips of my water didn’t help much because it was about the same temperature as the air.

Will I do it again? Not before November. If then.