The reason I have decided on this title is that when I was really very young, about 8 or 9 years old, I saw a sign beside the Mombasa Road telling me this. The road trip from Nairobi to Mombasa was long and boring for a child, sitting in the back, looking out of the window at nothing but the endless Savannah landscape and the undulating road ahead for hours on end. Sometimes I’d spot an animal in the distance or we would stop for a picnic, or at Tsavo or Voi but that never broke that feeling of complete boredom that comes from an 8 hour long drive. Cars and lorries would overtake or appear far away in the distance, growing bigger as they got closer until they drove past us and I’d catch the glimpse of an equally bored child staring out of the window at me. I’d ask if we were nearly there yet (well we weren’t, until we were) and anyway I knew what to look out for. If I saw thorn trees, or Baobab trees, then no, we had hundreds of miles to go. If I saw palm trees, well, it was still a long way. But if I saw the sea, well it was not so far, but still quite a long time.

But back to the sign, well, that was there to remind drivers to give Elephants priority. To let them pass unhindered on their journey from one place to another, ancient and well travelled routes going back far longer than the old pot holed road I had come to know so well. Drivers were not to obstruct them, get in their way or block their natural movement. The sensible thing was to stay well back, observe and respect their space. Even as a child I loved to do this. To watch their clumsy elegance, the sway of their large bodies and the folds of their wrinkled skin as they planted their feet step by step on the road. Ear flapping and gentle trunk movements conveying their emotions. Drivers were not to honk, shout or make loud noises; not to startle or stress them. Who knew where that would lead? Elephants could be unpredictable and dangerous. Drivers were not to flash their lights at them or do anything to stress or agitate them and they (or their passengers were not to throw waste at them, or out of their windows. Everyone was to exercise a level of caution and keep their distance. Wildlife and it’s habitat was too precious disrupt or spoil.

So my blog/ or my book/ memoirs/ story or whatever this will become is named this because in a way that sign was pivotal. My life hasn’t been dedicated to elephants or wildlife, but it has been to family, and to living and life and people and friends. I try to let people have their right of way, as I have my own right of way. This is not only my story, but my family story. I don’t know who will read it, if anyone will but it is something I began on paper so many years ago. some of my blog will be the stories I wrote in the past. It will be love letter, I think, to my reader.

“The best book you’ll ever read is the one you write – your life story – and it can be as easy as writing a love letter.” Richard Campbell

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