Just a suggestion:

My indie LR mechanic told me that few modern alternators are able to put out their maximum charging for long periods of time. He said he'd seen a number if cars with flat batteries where the alternator had packed in soon afterwards from tried to get a totally dead battery back up to charge. (This wasn't specifically FFRR related, just general.)

It might be an idea to bring along a fully charged battery when you get the car, then use a charger to bring the original one back to full power before recharging.

Also, I don't know how easy it is to get all your insurance & licensing fine in one go. Possibly having the car removed and towed to your house where and maintenance and a battery charger can be used to get the car sorted while the paperwork is sorted.

You sound ver knowledgeable, so I don't think I need to remind you about the 2 minute wait for battery disconnects.

My FFRR is also on its way to Africa but to the Western side in Cameroon. I dropped it off at Pickfords in Wembley on 5 May and it was loaded into a container and put on a ship leaving Felixstowe on Sunday 24 May. According to the ship tracking it is near Port Tangier and is expected to arrive in the port of Doualla on 9 July, which is 3 days after we arrive in Yaoundé (the capital). Once it has cleared customs, it is put on a low loader and driven the 5-6 hours to Yaoundé.

I sourced the vehicle from Germany with a private seller through the German auto trader equivalent website of www.mobile.de because it had to be LHD. I was also advised by a colleague to get a petrol version as his experience with a diesel Discovery was that the local diesel quality was affecting the diesel filter and causing him problems. The cost of petrol in Cameroon is about a third of the price in the UK. The vehicle I bought was a 2003 Vogue 4.4 in black with tan leather interior.

For our last journey before taking it to Pickfords, we took it with us for a long weekend in Cornwall. I decided to fill up in Sittingbourne and not fill up until the petrol light came on. We arrived near Truro and the light hadn't come on but according to the trip computer, we still had 95 miles of fuel left (the gauge was halfway between 0 and 25). When I filled it up, it cost £95! A bit different to filling up our current Renault Laguna which usually costs around £65 to fill. The FFRR had averaged 17.7 mpg which included stints with the aircon on. The car performed faultlessly and we are looking forward to having it again when it arrives in Yaoundé.

I will create a new thread once we and the vehicle have been re-united in Yaoundé to give an idea of how the FFRR fits into the Cameroonian landscape.

Regards,

Steve