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How I remember it, with some writer's licence. All photos from the trip.
Phaoroh’s Revenge is a cliched risk for tourists in Egypt. I didn’t know it for six weeks, but in my case it was Hepatitis A, whose vaccine I'd failed to get. I must have caught it from contaminated food or water. The rules of dietary precautions in hot countries were new to me. Well cooked street food is usually safe. Items like red juice offered by strangers, fresh fruit juices, poorly washed cutlery, opening my mouth in the shower, had not made it onto my banned list.
Hep A violently upset my digestion, took my appetite, then made me weak, feverish and headachey, before leaving me abandoned in a Luxor hotel. I was ill for a week...and then another week a month later...and eventually turned yellow. But that was all ahead of me.
I managed the rest of the felucca ride, stops at Edfu and Esna, a hair-raising trip in the back of a truck to Luxor, traipsing round the Temple of Karnak, and, just about, cycling round the Valley of the Kings. A local took me in for mint tea and sold me a blue “antique” figurine which I kept for years, intending to take it to a museum, even though I saw rows of them in Luxor shops.
The worst of the fever lasted two days. The Bridge group were very kind, especially Heather, Matt and Mike. They watched over me without complaint, and at least some of them stayed longer than they had planned. But they were due back at work, and eventually had to go. Apparently they thought I might die, which makes them sound a bit irresponsible, but I don't think they were. One way or another the hotel staff looked after me. A doctor came and said something helpful. I ate little and read through the only book anyone could find, an Agatha Christie. I had left pretentious and overambitious Proust on the kibbutz.
When I felt well enough to eat and drink again, and leave the hotel, I explored Luxor long enough to be offered a massage in a basement, which I had enough sense to refuse. The hotel porter hoped to visit Israel one day, and didn’t know why he might not be very welcome. When fully recovered I took my rail challenge a step further, buying a third class ticket to Cairo for two ginyh - about 50c.
Click for what happened next.
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