Day 78: Good to go
Soutpiel Safari
John & Jenny
Fri 21 Jan 2011 20:50
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Day 78: Friday 21 January 2011. Private house Accra,
Ghana. Distance driven 37 km
We heard late last night that the LR parts had arrived
at DHL warehouse so I was there before 0800 this morning to clear the goods
through Customs. That took 2 hours, a lot of patience (of which i have a
short supply) and CD250 - about £112 in duty, VAT, clearance fees, handling
fess, unspecified fees and percentages on percentages. The world of
freight is like this the world over; fees on fees on fees. Most of the time you
don't know what you are paying for, you only know that you have no
option but to pay up and that you are undoubtedly being taken for a ride -
just grin and bear it.
I fitted the two new half shafts this afternoon, once
the heat had gone out of the sun, quite an easy job taking only about 45 minutes
each side.
That was quite an amazing service from Nene Overland and
DHL. In only 72 hours from being advised of the problem by PHC Motors,
Nene Overland had shipped the parts out by DHL, they had arrived in Accra and I
had cleared them though Customs and fitted them. Contrast this with PHC's
pathetic "it will take a month to get the parts from the UK" and
"if the Customer provides parts our policy does not allow us to fit
them". It is all a question of attitude; they could have had the business
if they had the imagination to come up with a realistic solution. Is this
just "the African way" or is it anything to do with Tata's new ownership of
Land Rover? Or are we just lucky to be looked after so well by Nene
Overland?
We are now ready to roll tomorrow morning, out westwards
to the Cape Coast for a few days. It is going to be a wrench leaving
the hot showers, washing machine and aircon but we need to make a break and get
back to camping before we get too soft!
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