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Matatus, boda bodas, the Madaraka Express and light aircraft. How Kenya actually moves, and which of it suits a first visit.

Kenya is Level 2 overall and parts of it are advised against entirely. Which parts, why, and the one exemption that matters to visitors.

Ugali, sukuma wiki, nyama choma and the Swahili coast. What Kenyans actually eat, and how the coast became a different cuisine.

Greetings are not optional in Kenya, and the coast has its own rules. What to say, what to wear, and when not to take the photograph.

Maulidi at Lamu has been held since the nineteenth century. What Kenya celebrates, when it falls, and how to attend without being a problem.

The oldest and best preserved Swahili settlement in East Africa, lived in for over seven hundred years. What to see, and the advisory that surrounds it.

Kenya is not West Africa, and its diaspora story is an Indian Ocean one. What return travel here actually means, and what it does not.

Safari is more accessible in Kenya than the cities are. An honest account of traveling here with limited mobility, without pretending.

The largest of Ghana’s coastal castles, a World Heritage Site and a working museum. What stands there now, and how to visit it properly.

Begun in 1482, St. George’s d’Elmina is one of the oldest European buildings outside Europe. What survives there, and how to visit it.

The last bath before the coast. Assin Manso was a great inland slave market, and is now a place of return, of reburial and of quiet.

Ghana has two wet seasons in the south, one in the north and a dust laden harmattan between them. A month by month reading of when to go.

Ghana asks for a visa arranged before you fly, a passport with six months left on it and a yellow fever certificate at the border.

The cedi cannot be bought before you fly, so the first hour in Ghana is a cash decision. How notes, cards and mobile money really work.