Day 75: LR problems

Soutpiel Safari
John & Jenny
Tue 18 Jan 2011 21:11
Day 75: Tuesday 18 January 2010. Private house, Accra, Ghana.  Distance driven 10 km
 
I took the Land Rover in for a full service today and was rather surprised to be told that one of the drive shaft splines, or the drive flange, is worn.  The local LR dealer does not have a spare drive shaft and will take a month to get one from the UK!  I went to the workshop to verify this but they are absolutely correct, there is some considerable wear.  I am surprised that we haven't noticed it before.
 
After talking with Kevin at Nene Overland it seems that this is a very common problem with Defenders, but he is proposing to send us a new pair of shafts and flanges by courier.  Better still, the replacements will be specially hardened ones of Australian origin so we should never have the same problem again!  What a wonderful service!
 
Other than that, Jenny worked all day and I went browsing around the local markets.  I wanted to buy a leather belt for Jenny and saw some at a street stall.  The vendor was very pushy, but finally I asked "how much"? 
    "25 Cedis"
    "What, 25 Cedis - rubbish, I wouldn't pay more than 10"
    "I'll make it 20"
    "No, I'm not interested"  and began to walk away
    "17 then"
    "No, I'm really not interested" and walked off.  I then heard him say "take it at your price" but I walked on
    Next thing I knew he had pursued me 150 metres down the street and was pleading "take it at your price"
    We did the deal at 10 Cedis (about £4.50) , but I had obviously opened my bidding too high!