Our trip to S. Africa January and February 2001.

We flew out of the Atlanta Hartfield International terminal on a S. African Airlines jumbo jet, the 747, in the economy section. When we got on, they passed out a small toiletry kit consisting of a toothbrush and paste, comb and a washcloth. Love international flights, we’re always so impressed with the little touches.

There was a camera mounted on the belly of the plane so when we took off we could see ourselves leaving the ground. Sort of like a hyperspace flight from Star Wars.

They served us lunch of smoked duck garnished with a lite salad, sprinkled with cranberries. For the main course, we had veal maringo with green beans and a mixture of yellow and white rice or curried roast chicken thigh topped with toasted almonds together with oriental vegetables and rice pilaf. Dessert was chocolate cake with chocolate sauce, or cheese and biscuits and an after dinner chocolate.

We can now relax to a parade of movies for this 14-hour flight. We watched Remember the Titans, a football movie, Cooler Climate, a drama, Coyote Ugly, a comedy, Iceman and the Wonder Boys as we snacked on ice cream bars. Economy class is not bad. Wonder what first class had? Even our bathrooms had toiletries, face toner, etc.

Two hours before landing, was breakfast time. This isn’t the flight if you’re on a diet. We had fruit juice, fruit flavored yogurt, fresh fruit, cheddar cheese omelet with chipotle grilled tomato and hash browns or spinach and potato pie with sautéed button mushrooms and a roma tomato. Bread, rolls and pastry with butter and preserves and also a fine Cape wine were included with breakfast!

We landed at 7:30am S. Africa time, Sunday, January 28^th. It was a perfect landing and we could see every harrowing minute of it on the plane belly camera. We couldn’t embark on our cruise until 12pm so we had time to kill. We walked around a mall for awhile but sat most of the time and people-watched. The tourists, us, had on winter clothes or safari clothes. The locals wore summer clothes, as it was 75 degrees outside, and they all sounded Australian and were blond..

At 12 noon, we were bussed to our ship, the Pacific Princess and we immediately found our room and took a shower since it had been 36 hours since our last one. We relaxed until 4:45pm when they called us for muster. One thing about the Princess Line is that they don’t make you stand on the deck for muster. They hold their musters in the lounges and show rooms as they say, ‘the last resort is jumping in the water, and so you may as well be comfy’. (at least this trip)

We lucked out with our tablemates. It is casual dinner tonight. 2 girls in their 30’s from Ft. Wayne Indiana, Judy and Margo and Arnie and Sally from Fla. I had spring rolls, pasta with broccoli and decadent chocolate mousse for dinner. It was more like a solid chunk of chocolate. Steve had garbanzo bean soup, stuffed chicken breasts, shrimp cocktail, and Cesar salad. His chicken was very small and even the waiter gasped, so he also ordered the pasta. For dessert he had NY cheesecake. We wandered a bit after dinner then retired for the night.

Monday, Jan 29…

We got up early and walked 10 laps around the sun deck for 10 minutes. It was very windy. We then had breakfast in the dining room at 7:30 where we sat with a couple from Philly. We had lox and bagels.

After breakfast we went to a lecture on Durban.

For lunch we also ate in the dining room. I had vegetarian burritos and Steve had pasta carbonara and a Cobb salad.

After lunch we went to a lecture, an overview of Africa by Michael M.

Oh boy, time to eat again. Already formal night, so we first attended the captain’s cocktail party. For dinner Steve had crab quiche, lobster bisque, Caesar salad and lobster thermador with a pear tart for dessert. I had a cold soup, beef medallions and cake. I must have been cold, so after dinner I bought an African sweatshirt and a clock for our room since they failed to put one in (considering everything onboard ship centers around time).

Tuesday Jan 30…

Up early again for our lox and bagel breakfast with fresh fruits and omelets. We have a tour to Inkwenkwezi, S. Africa, which leaves at 8:15. It’s a private game preserve about 45 minutes away. Three busses took us there and we were greeted by girls singing and dancing traditional songs. These were pre-teen topless girls, I might add. They didn’t care, but we were a little uncomfortable.

We got on a landrover. Some were owned by Marijuana Trails so the name was on the landrovers, hats and t-shirts of the guides. Yes, it means the same thing as here and yes it is illegal in S. Africa but they still named their company that.

We drove quite far before seeing animals over rough terrain and the four-wheel drive really worked hard. We saw lots of wildebeests and antelope type things, giraffe and ostrich. The lions were in an electrified enclosure until they get some elephants and more animals to even out the natural selection environment, then the fences will be taken down. For now, four guys drag a dead cow into the enclosure and one lioness will drag it away from there. Now that is some back-breaking, dangerous work.

We learned that ostrich are very fast and mean on this trip. I guess they didn’t like our landrover because one chased us for quite a ways before giving up. It was touch and go for a while on whether it was going to catch us or not. It was pretty damn scary too. This ostrich within a few feet of the end of your open car, pecking at you.

We bounced and dodged tree limbs for 3 hours. We were glad our vehicle had a canvas top because it protected us from the sun. Some vehicles did not and there was lots of red skin at the end of the day. When we got back to the lodge, the girls were still dancing (I’m sure they just started up again) and they had a buffet of hot food ready for us including warthog, pork, lamb and some traditional dishes. It was very good. This is a fairly new preserve and there are plans to build lodging for tourists. I would give it a four star rating.

We got back to the ship at 2:30 and passed out until 5:30 so we could go to dinner and eat some more.

I felt that all I did was eat today so I had cold beet soup and a Caesar salad. Steve had veal scaloppini, matzo ball soup, Caesar salad and chocolate ice cream. We had two new tablemates tonight as Sally and Arnie joined another table. Tonight we had two sisters, Diane and Nancy, from Toronto, who just arrived today as they had missed their flight from Toronto and had quite a nightmarish experience getting to Cape Town, arriving one hour after the ship departed. They had to figure out how to get to our next port, East London. They had to figure it out mostly by themselves too, but made it! They are quite funny and travel a lot so we hope they stay at our table.

January 31…

I am already feeling like I’ve eaten too much and the cruise has only just begun. But I went ahead and had two sunny side up eggs, bacon and hash browns for breakfast anyway. Steve tried a salmon omelet and lox, but didn’t eat the omelet. Somehow smoked fish in eggs is rather nasty.

Our tour to the Valley of 1000 hills Durban S.Africa, a Zulu village, departs at 8:45 this morning. The Carousel lounge, where the four tours met this morning, was a madhouse. We were tour B, the last one called after A, C and D. Go figure. Our Toronto tablemates, Nancy and Diane arrived on time for their tour but were told that it hadn’t let yet. We thought we had heard their tour called and told them to recheck. Sure enough, their tour was called a few minutes ago. They missed their tour of Shakaland Zulu Village, Incredible! Anyway, there was room on our tour so they got to go. It wasn’t their fault they missed their tour either, just bad luck.

We left for the Zulu Village and rode 45 minutes through Durban into the countryside. Durban is very beautiful with all the same plants as San Diego. Beautifully landscaped and many large homes as you leave the city. Durban is 99% Zulu and the language spoken is Zulu, English and Africana. The street signs were bi-lingual. Durban had colonial building and was a large city with people selling ware on the streets. About 30% unemployment and we were advised not to walk downtown, which is no different than walking downtown LA or NY. The suburbs were beautiful and it was only 70 degrees today with a misty rain compared to a very hot 89 degrees and humid yesterday.

The average wage for Durban was 6000-7000 Rand a year (one US $= 7.70 Rand so that would be ……..) (math makes my head explode so you’ll have to figure the conversion yourself) Average home prices were 200,000-400,000 rand.

The trees lining the street were Frangipani, purple and pink Tibochina, coral trees (Erythryina) and Flamboyant trees. There were many cannas, hydrangeas, bougainvilleas, Norfolk pines and dracaenas. The roads were originally elephant paths, now expressways. The superstructure is very good but will degrade as we get further from S. Africa.

We finally arrive at the very scenic Valley of 1000 Hills, which by the way was named by Mark Twain). They have crocodile farms here and inside the enclosures are trees that are full of Weaverbird nests, which hang down just like baskets. The male cardinal sized weaverbird builds a nest in the hopes of wooing a mate. The duller female inspects it and either accepts the nest or destroys it where he would then have to start all over again. The reason they build the nest over the crocs is for protection from other predators. Very smart indeed.

We then saw a snake exhibit of many poisonous and non-poisonous snakes. Steve had half of a Burmese python draped around him, non-indigenous to Africa as it is from Burma. The majority of the snake was draped on an employee. We then ate again, since it was teatime, you know it a British country. We had scones, tea or coffee. The scones were biscuits, unlike the American type scones.

From there we were entertained with Zulu customs. Unmarried Zulu girls are topless and engaged girls cover their breasts. Married Zulu girls are fully covered and also wear a hat that is breaded to their hair. Married girls also wear a rolled up animal skin wedding skirt on their rump. This acts as a shelf for their baby and also hides the hip movement so men will not look at their rear. Divorce is illegal and adultery is punishable by death. They have polygamy and it costs 11 cows to buy a bride. The ladies give a strand of beads to a man to accept a marriage proposal.

Here’s a bit of Zulu history: Zulu’s are known as People of the Heavens. Before the 19^th century, the amaZulu, were one of a number of clans which comprised the Nguni people who inhabited the region now known as Natal. In the late 1700’s, a young and attractive maiden, Nandi, from the neighboring Elangeni clan captured the fancy of Chief Sengangakhona of Zulu clan.

They could not marry because their clans were too close. Still, the chief could not resist Nandi. When the Zulu’s were told that Nandi was pregnant, the elders said she wasn’t. She was infected with the iShaka, the intestinal beetle usually blamed for menstrual irregularities.

A second message arrived at the royal homestead and Sengangakhona was bade to collect Nandi and her ‘intestinal beetle’.

Little did all the Nguni clans realize though, this very child born to Nandi, was Shaka Zulu and would one day be responsible for one of the most powerful nations Africa has ever known.

Shaka Zulu concurred Europe, had 1200 wives and was killed by his brother when 41 yeas old.

Zulu Facts:

NGQO-NGQU! (tongue click for the Q) means knock knock. There are 19,000 words in the Zulu language. All end in a vowel (good trivia)

Married women dress:

• Inhloko-red colored and beaded conical headdress
• Isidwaba-pleated cowhide shirt rubbed with animal fat and charcoal cover the breasts like a corset
• Incai-beaded and decorated antelope skin
• Ibibhamba-beaded and decorated grass belt
• Brass and copper bangles, grass and bead bracelets and beaded necklaces.

Zulu Warrior Dress

• Headdress-made from leopard skin, as a sign of rank
• Amashoba-combed cow tails worn as arm bands and leggings
• Isinene-frontal apron made from wild cat tails
• Injoba-wild cat tails hanging beside the isinene
• Ibeshu-cut from unborn nguni calfskins and used to cover the buttocks.

Zulu words:

• Sawubono-hills
• Unjani-how are you
• Ngikhona-I am well
• Sikhona-we are well
• Ngiyabonga-thank you
• Umuzi-homestead
• Indlu-house or hut
• Ingoma-dance
• Isagila-hunting stick
• Umkhonto-spear
• Ihawu-shield
• Madoda-man
• Umfazi-woman

The colors of the Zulu beadwork playa significan role in communication.

• White-purity
• Red-love
• Blue-loneliness
• Yellow-jealousy
• Pink-poverty

Traditional food:

• Grilled meat-inyama eyosiwe
• Maize meal-uphuthu
• Kidney beans-ubhomubhomu
• Sugar beans-ubhonishisi
• Beef stew-inyama yenkomo
• Zulu bear=utshwala
• Wild pumpkin-ithanga
• Wild spinach-imfino

How to build a Zulu beehive hut: (You never know when you might have to)

First a circle is drawn on the grown. Men bend and tie together thousands of saplings to form the shape. The women weave thatching grass into ropes, mats and top notches. Starting at the base, the mats are wound around the framework until the top has been reach. A 2^nd layer is put on the same way, to make the hut waterproof. All the thatching is then bound down with a web of green ropes.

The traditional umuzi (homestead) is built on a slop to allow for drainage and protection and is carefully planned and laid out with a:

• Main entrance
• Cattle enclosure (kraal) in the center
• Small livestock enclosure, on the side of the cattle enclosure
• The main hut (indlu inkhulu) opposite the main entrance on the other side of the kraal
• Huts for the 2^nd wife on the right of the kraal
• Huts for the 3^rd wife on the left of the kraal.

After we were given an enactment of their life, we were able to purchase geegaws from their curio shop and of course we did. We purchased a necklace set, ostrich earrings, soapstone elephants, post cards, map of Africa made of wood, a statue, salad servers, soapstone eggs and an assagay (small spear)

When we returned to the ship, we played trivia and tied for 1^st. We won coffee cups. For dinner that night I had cold avocado soup, Caesar salad, capon with green beans and a sugarfree fruit tart. Steve had shrimp with rice, broccoli and coffee custard for dessert. Then to bed!

Feb 1… started the day with breakfast of fruit in a pineapple for me and Steve had an omelet, lox and bagels. We played Trivia again at 11:30 and won two more coffee cups. Woohoo! We will have more things to trade when we get to Nosy Be, Madegascar.

For lunch on deck, we had the buffet with the added bonus of sushi rolls. We took our ice cream and fruit tart back to our room until the Africa talk at 2:!5 which was about the native tribes of Africa. It was an illustrated presentation on the culture, art and history of many of Africa’s native peoples, including the Ashanti, Ewe, Zulu, Maasai and Samburu tribes. I was really intrigued by the Maasai. They were so beautiful and colorful.

Trivia again at 5pm but we didn’t win this time. Semi formal tonight, although you wouldn’t know it. Some people came in t-shirts. I had cold apple soup, jalapeno poppers and pasta. Steve had poppers, Caesar salad and milk fed veal. Then we went to the movies and saw Gladiator with Russell Crow.

That night we had a ghost in our cabin in the adjoining door to the next room. Sounded like he was shaking a pill bottle with 4 pills in it. Quite nervewracking! I finally figured out how to stop the noise in the morning by wedging paper in the door sides so it couldn’t move.

We were notified that our Zanzibar stop was cancelled due to it being to dangerous but will spend two days in Mombasa instead. Darn, Zanzibar just sounds so romantic. It would have been very cool to say you’ve been to Zanzibar!

Feb 2^nd, We both found it hard to get out of bed. I think they were pumping carbon monoxide in our room or something. (not really) But anyway, we managed to get to breakfast on the sun deck, ha, then Steve went back to bed. I did 20 laps around the deck, one mile, then sunbathed my hair to try and lighten it before the 9:30 talk on Mayotte, a French Island. It is an expensive island, the temp is 90 degrees and 90 % humidity and the taxi’s don’t have a/c and cost $30-60 hour. I think we’ll stay onboard when we get to Mayotte.

Trivia again at 11:30 and vegetable carving too. Steve played trivia while I went to the vegetable carving demonstration on the sun deck. His team tied for 1^st with a perfect score and won pens. I only stayed for 15 minutes of the demonstration because it was too hot and sunny and I burn in 10 minutes. There was another talk on Africa at 2:15 by naturalist Michael Modzelewski. This was a slideshow about lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, giraffes, the spitting cobra and the Madagascar lemurs.

Dinner was casual night. I had French onion soup, Caesar salad, a fruit plate and cherries jubilee. Steve had escargo, Caesar, canard a’lorange, and cherries jubilee.

We then went to the movies and saw the Contender with Jeff Bridges, then went to bed.

Feb 3…We walked around the deck 20 times, I write at 6:30am then breakfast topside. After that we went to the talk on Mombasa. We decided to not take a tour of the city or safari to Tsavo. The cruise director said there would be many vendors dockside when we docked (they will be there from the previous night waiting for us) with loads of geegaws for sale. Plus there will be s shuttle provided by Mombasa every ½ hour to town only 3 miles away. A taxi would give us the tourist rate of $15 each way.

Trivia was at 11:30. Our team won 1^st place again and we won Princess totebags. We’re hot!!!!!!!! Lunch was an Italian theme deckside. We stayed and talked till 2:30 then took a nap. We slept thru afternoon trivia, so off to dinner where I had orange roughy and Steve had leg of lamb. We saw the movie Erin Brochovich that night.

Feb 4….Breakfast on deck then prepared for our trip to Nosy Komba isle of Lemurs. (Nosy means island) We could later take a tender to Nosy Be too. Local boats picked us up from the ship and took us to the island. We were greeted by kids singing and dancing with white lace patterns painted on their faces. We had to walk in the water to get to the island from the boat so we had to dust the wet sand off of our feet. Our guide was very nice and led us thru their little town, which was just shacks of houses lines with rows of table cloths hanging on clothes lines, for sale. They were very pretty, with large cut out patterns of lemurs, butterflies, flowers, etc. They also had hand-embroidered linens which had a flair of Peruvian style. We brought bags of pharmaceutical pens and pads of paper for the children and once we started passing them out, they surrounded us yelling, ‘stylo and papier!’ They were very greedy and we were glad when the goods were gone. We didn’t walk far before entering heavily foliaged trails where the locals were calling the lemurs. They spoke French and called them like we do, here lemmy lemmy lemmy, only in French. About 10 came out of the jungle because they wanted the bananas they were being offered. The lemurs never got too close but were easy to see.

It was so freaking hot and humid, it was really like hell and the funny thing is, the capital of Nosy Be is Hellville.

If you took someone’s photo, they immediately asked for a dollar. What they did with the dollar, we have no idea since it didn’t look like they needed to buy anything. But I don’t blame them for not wanting to be exploited.

One half of the world’s chameleon varieties live in Madegascar and the kids had branches with chameleons on them wanting a dollar for a photo. All in all, we were glad to see the lemurs but the people were very annoying and it was too damn hot! We took a local boat back to the ship and gave our tour guide and two locals in our boat some t-shirts. They were very grateful.

We immediately took a shower, including our tennies too, then went to lunch. Can’t miss any food opportunities.

There were a bunch of dugout canoes at the stern of the ship (in the water) with 2 or 3 locals in each. The boats were filled with fruit and wooden carved ships. They wanted to trade these things for candy, shampoo, t-shirts, shoes, you name it. Security advised against throwing stuff off the ship but people did it anyway. Everyone was having fun, especially the locals. The cooks lowered bottles of wine down on ropes and pulled up fish that were 3 feet long in exchange. We only heard of the fish. Then the security guards showed up and trading stopped for awhile before resuming again.

Trivia at 5pm. We placed 2^nd. It was Italian night tonight so we had shrimp on rice and shrimp appetizers, salads and penne. The movie was Mission Impossible 2.

Feb 5…Walked the deck in the am. We’re at sea today. There was an African Party on deck from 9:30-11:30am. Played cards. Dinner was war won ton soup and lamb for Steve and lamb for me. We saw the movie Kid with Bruce Willis tonight.

Feb 6…At Sea. Won trivia game this morning. Got cd cases. There was a grand buffet for lunch and an auction at 3:15 for African things. We bid on Kente cloth.

Taken from Wikipedia: Kente cloth" is produced by the Akan people. It is a royal and sacred silken cloth worn only in times of extreme importance. Kente was the cloth of kings. Over time, the use of kente became more widespread, however its importance has remained and it is held in high esteem in the Akan family and the entire country of Ghana. The icon of African cultural heritage around the world.

Asante kente is identified by its dazzling, multicolored patterns of bright colors, geometric shapes and bold designs. I think this is the one we bought for $35. Kente characterized by weft designs woven into every available block of plain weave is called adweneasa. The Asante peoples of Ghana choose kente cloths as much for their names as their colors and patterns.

Symbolic meanings of the colors in Kente cloth:

• black -- maturation, intensified spiritual energy
• blue -- peacefulness, harmony and love
• green -- vegetation, planting, harvesting, growth, spiritual renewal
• gold -- royalty, wealth, high status, glory, spiritual purity
• grey -- healing and cleansing rituals; associated with ash
• maroon -- the color of mother earth; associated with healing
• pink -- assoc. with the female essence of life; a mild, gentle aspect of red
• purple -- assoc. with feminine aspects of life; usually worn by women
• red -- political and spiritual moods; bloodshed; sacrificial rites and death.
• silver -- serenity, purity, joy; assoc. with the moon
• white -- purification, sanctification rites and festive occasions
• yellow -- preciousness, royalty, wealth, fertility

Feb 7^th…Arrived in Mombasa and went into the big city of Mombasa with another couple to go to an internet café to check emails. Bought lots of things on the dock. They are very hard bargainers.

Feb 8^th, The end of our cruise and the beginning of our safari. We disembarked and drove to Tsavo for our Safari portion of the trip. There is no written recollection here, just the itinerary from Princess and recollection 8 years later when this was written.

It took 4 hours to reach Tsavo National Park which is part of the Serengeti ecosystem. It’s a good place to see lion and large populations of elephant, as animals are spotted easily in the semi-arid plains and bush that cover this rocky volcanic terrain. We spent the night at the Kilaguna safari lodge. There is electrified wire around the lodge. They would hang a dead animal on a hook and if you stayed up, you could see a lion eat it during the night.

Feb 9…Drive from Tsavo to Amboseli National Park. Morning game run en route to Amboseli National Park. Mt Kilimanjaro is still snow capped, surrounded by volcanic rock. I mean, there is no vegetation. All black volcanic rock everywhere.

We have an afternoon game run. Amboseli is Kenya’s first game sanctuary, established in 1948 and is home to the cheetah, giraffe, buffalo and large herds of elephant. Zebra, eland and wildebeest roam these lands as well.

We saw the largest migration of elephants in many years, so many in fact, that our guide, Wilson, called other guides and notified them to come to the area we were in. We also were lucky enough to see millions of flamingos that landed the night before in a shallow lake. The guides never know when they will arrive or leave because they do it during the night. The birds feed on algae, that forms on the lake bed. The birds are like a carpet of pink and quite breathtaking.

During these game runs we rode in Land Rovers that had pop-up tops. This is way preferable compared to other vehicles. It is easier to see while standing up and you can see in all directions. We saw many animals but I might recommend a neck brace, like the ones you wear for whiplash, for the next safari. See how close we are to that bull elephant. The guide said if we were to get out of the land rover, he would probably attack us.

Night was spent at the Amboseli Serna Lodge. (also surrounded by electrified wire)

Feb 10…Early morning game run. The vast number of visitors to the area have threatened the delicate grasslands that nourish the wildlife found in this region. As a result, it is now a requirement that vehicles stay on the posted roads and tracks. This game run was done in a caravan of about 8 vans. The first and last van had an armed guard posted in it. We never knew if he was on our side or the poacher’s side. A poacher is to be shot and we were stopped by the authorities on occasion to inspect for poached animals. When you think about it, this was a dangerous trip. The van split up once in the park.

We saw hyenias, lots of baboons, elephant, birds, giraffe and more which I can’t remember.

Either on the way to Tsavo or Amboseli National Park, we went thru the Maasi territory and saw Maasi children walking along the road. Whenever a car or van would approach, they would hold up their index finger and yell, ‘stylo’. They sure wanted those pens! We also discovered the Maasi repellent. When we stopped for gas, we were the first van in the caravan, so the Maasi surrounded us trying to sell their geegaws. The Maasi think that if someone takes their photo, their soul is stolen. Therefore, the camera held up to the window of the van was the repellent. They went to the van behind us immediately. Quite hilarious! We did respect them and only held up the camera. They also believe that if they were red, the lions won’t attack them, well, so much for that theory.

After the game run, we returned to the lodge and had breakfast. After breakfast we left for the big city of Nairobi. This is Kenya’s chief administrative, cultural and economic center. The city was founded in the 1890’s as the British Railroad camp on the Mombasa to Uganda route. All of Kenya remained a British colony until attaining independence in 1963.

We were told to keep our hands, etc, inside our van and keep the windows closed because it is not uncommon for someone to reach inside the van while in traffic and yank off your jewelry or watch. They have seen people hanging from vans trying to do this, in fact we did too.

In Nairobi we stayed at the Grand Regency Hotel, which was a very fine hotel. Unbelievably though, this is the only place we got a mosquito bite, in our room!

Feb 11…Nairobi sightseeing. We saw the highlights of this capital ‘City in Sun’ 5000 feet in fertile highlands. We visited the Karen Blixen estate, once a coffee plantation, now a national museum showcasing the colonial influence made famous in the 1986 movie ‘Out of Africa’. Then we continued on to the Langatta Nature Education Center where we could feed the semi tame giraffe from a raised platform or ground-level. There were also warthogs in the enclosure.

Now I definitely remember this place because as I was taking a photo of the warthogs, there was this giraffe that either didn’t like me or wanted attention. He swooped his head down, like he was hitting a long drive golf ball, only my head was the golf ball. He nearly knocked me over as he hit me so hard. It gave me a headache too. The guard only laughed. Ha ha, liability, what liability.

We returned to the hotel, where our room was reserved until 6pm. The hotel had very nice paintings on the walls.

We then departed for our return trip home.

That’s it!