There is nothing like the corrugated gravel roads of northern Namibia (Etosha to be precise) to test if everything on your car, trailer and body is attached, bolted and tied down.

Sadly the vibrations did not clear the amber warning lights for the ABS, Traction control and Hill Descent on the Discovery so we decided to head for Windhoek, Namibia's capital, to hand out money to yet another Landrover dealership! As it happened the amber lights turned out to be a computer fault, cleared once reset, so we got away lightly for once.

The tyres were a different matter. The gravel of Namibia eats tyres and we ended up needing two. Our new Namibian friend Dieter, last seen seriously attached to a whisky bottle in Etosha, proved our saviour by not only knowing the managers of all tyre shops in town but for also taking a day off work and chauffeuring us around in his car to get the best deal.

Dieter runs his own garden landscaping business and his family own a beautiful plant nursery in town. A half hour tour of the nursery made us realise how UK garden centres rip you off in terms of poor quality and high prices.

Windhoek is an odd place, about the size of our hometown Reading, but with 1/20th of the traffic. We stayed at the only campsite convenient for the city, and found that sleeping next to a runway and dual carriageway made a change from national park noises! The icing on the cake was a wedding party at the nearby restaurant, with what sounded like the father of the bride murdering Hey Jude on the Karaoke machine at 2am!

Like most Namibians, Dieter is a die-hard Toyota fan so we endured constant ribbing for our choice of vehicle. Sod's Law then that when setting off to Dieter and Daniela's house for a Sunday braai, my car door got stuck open in the locked position and we pulled up in their drive with Angela holding on to a rope to keep it from swinging in to the oncoming traffic! You can imagine the pleasure this gave Dieter!

Predictably this required a new door lock, since replaced in Walvis Bay on the coast once the part had arrived from South Africa. The trailer also needed some attention in Windhoek, the wrongly named Grumpy at Bushwhackers outdoor shop proved a star in organising a full service and wheel bearing re-grease at a moment's notice.

Whilst we would rather not visit any of these places it is an inevitable consequence of doing 50,000 kilometres on some very dodgy roads. Everywhere we turn up, whether for the car or the trailer, we have been helped immediately, often without any prior notice. Contrast that with the UK, where Renault required two months notice and a letter from the Pope before you could get our car in for a routine service!

Another good thing about garages out here is that you can speak to the mechanic, in the workshop, show them the problems and watch them work. Try that in the UK and they would eject you from the premises on Health & Safety grounds. Last thing they want is for you to realise that the car is sat there with no one working on it, especially when they are charging you £60 per hour!

We are indebted to Dieter and Daniela for their help and hospitality in Windhoek, should you guys ever arrive in the UK you are very welcome….to stay with our friends (we'll still be in Africa!)