These notes were supposed to explain why SD came to write Welcome to Oakhaven, the story how Elaine Jackson settled into the village. Well, we've got as far on the Dalton's travels and settling in to when we left for South Africa. Everyone thinks - Oh you go to South Africa as if it was going to Edinburgh or Cambridge or somewhere. It's not like that, the mines are dotted all over the place. The gold mines are fairly central around Johannesburg but even the diamond mines are out in the sticks at Kimberley. Kimberley would make a decent sized market town when we were there and the nearest thing north is Johannesburg more than four hours drive away. There's nothing west. There nothing south or east until you get to the coast and that takes at least eight hours. We finished up in the semi- desert three hours on dirt roads south west of Kimberley worrying about how our furniture and the cats would get there in one piece.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/books/welcome-oakhaven