Hi Guillame,

I've been doing a trip down West Africa in a small 4x4 in multiple stages over the past couple of years.

I've done it in 2-3 week hops to Cameroon but am now planning to do a longer stint down to South Africa:

- Morocco to Gambia
- Gambia to Ghana
- Ghana to Benin
- Benin to Cameroon

For car storage:

- In Gambia I stored it in Sukuta camping which is used to doing this and can arrange for an extension to the import papers so you can store it there for as long as you like

- In Ghana I left it with a friend in Tamale. Following advice on this forum, I deliberately entered and exited on quiet, non computerised borders to make sure they didn't link my car to my passport (so I wouldn't have issues flying out). This seemed to work and they didn't flag it up that I left the car in there for so many months

- In Benin, I left it with Au Jardin Helvetia. I just contacted them through their website and they said they had a spare garage for around £25 per month I think. It actually took me longer than expected to return to Benin to pick it up which meant my Carnet had expired. I was a bit worried about this but got a new Carnet issued when I was in the UK and at the next border just hoped they wouldn't query it. Fortunately I was lucky. I used a really small, friendly border to go to Nigeria and they couldn't care less

- In Cameroon, I contacted a few people online to see if I could store a car and someone I contacted on Airbnb had a friend who could store it in a hotel car park. A bit expensive ($100 per month) but they run the engine and keep the battery charged at least

All in all, I'd say go ahead and do it. I thought it might be a nightmare but it's really quite ok (and on the plus side you can sort all the visas at home which avoids spending so much time in embassies whilst on holiday).

Hope this helps.