So you're in a Defender and the clutch pedal isn't working. That's okay, you just have to match the revs to the speed of the gearbox. Ok. Oh no, we're entering Accra and there's four lanes of traffic on a three lane highway. Okay, just coast to a stop and let it stall and start the engine again when you want to move, and the starter motor will bump start the Land Rover.

Wrong. The battery is dead. Shit. Erm erm. Okay, pull it out of gear and coast to an almost stop, but push against first gear and the clattering of gears means that they're very nearly engaged and keep pushing. But then you really have to completely stop. Then it's low range, push the gear lever into first as hard as you can. After a few seconds the Land Rover is going fast enough and the gears mesh together. We're moving. We're going again and the system is working. Uh oh. Traffic's sped up. I can't change through the low gears fast enough. It'll have to be an on the move change from Low to High. Grinding. That's what the transfer box says about that.

So the moral of the story. Always replace your batterey sooner rather than later because if your clutch pedal starts to get a bit spongy and eventually stops due to a leaky slave cylinder valve, you won't have a stressful 3 hour drive through traffic in one of West Africa's busiest capital cities.

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