Exploring a WEST AFRICAN VILLAGE in Ghana!! Ghanaian Street Food + Road Trip | Tamale, Ghana

So every city has its own style of watcher, right? But usually very similar. Always the noodles, the egg as well. There's nothing like eating street food in Ghana. Good afternoon, everyone. I hope you're all doing well. This is David Hoffman from David's Been Here coming at you at 5.30 in the morning here at Zaina Lodge in Muller National Park, Ghana. This place has blown my mind. I spent 36 hours on this beautiful property, saw so many elephants, saw one of the oldest mosque in West Africa, went on a canoe ride, saw a mystic stone, but really the highlight for me was those elephants. So many, five meters from me, just playing. I mean, they're telling me that you never see that really rare sighting. It was crazy. We walked around with the ranger, took a bunch of photos, and I was blown away. The food here is also delicious. You have to come to Zaina Lodge when you come to Ghana. And today, guys, it's all about the journey. We are traveling to Tamale, the third-largest city in Ghana. It's a three-hour drive. Let's say a four-hour drive because of stops. We're gonna stop at a local village. We're gonna go get some shia butter and probably have some wacha. You know, it's 5.45 now. I'm waiting for Isaac and Ben. As soon as they get here, we jump in the car and we go. Are you excited? Let's go to Tamale. Good morning. How are you doing? Good. Dude, I don't even see you. It's this dark. Yeah. Yes, Tamale. And when we get to Tamale, instead of them saying Amaraba, welcome. So we just exited the gate of Mole. And one thing that's really, really good about Zaina Lodge is that the gate and the lodge are only about 15-minute drive, right? Not so bad. Some parks in Africa, once you enter the gate, you still have two or three more hours to go. They're telling me one, and Ben, in two hours. Once you enter the gate, there's two more hours. That's intense, man. They can't fly you in. All right, guys, we made it to the village where they shea out butter. We just passed through a bunch of villages. Everybody's waking up, you know, really early in the morning. It's almost seven, we've been on the road for an hour. That's unfortunate. The lady that was making the butter the other day, she's not here. She was the one that was gonna sell this to us. What's the name of that town? Bushunu. Bushunu? Yeah, Bushunu. And how much longer before we hit the next road? We're almost there, right? In about 15 minutes or so. We'll get to the main highway. And from there, it's another 90 minutes, roughly, to get to Tamale, right? So it's like halfway is the main road where we came up. So you make a right, you go down to Kumasi, eight-hour drive, or let's say six-hour drive, and then you make a left, it's 90 minutes, and you're in Tamale. And this is it. Woo, it's actually nippy today. Falling out here in Savannah. The African Savannah. I gotta say, there's one thing that you have to see when you're in an African bush lodge. You have to see sunrise, sunset. They're always beautiful. Sometimes the sunset isn't the best because it's a little cloudy, but right now we watched the sunrise and it was epic, just going up through the trees. Lesson to do is literally walk into the bush and get photos with the trees behind you, but yeah, this is it. I love these adventures, man. Hopefully we see some food. Wachi. Probably your last wachi before you fly back home. I think so, I think so. And probably my last fufu today. Are you going to be able to teach your wife how to make a wachi? No, come on. We're making another quick stop here at Janikura. This is like a traditional mud hut village. We're going to walk around. Hopefully I can try something to eat, but now we're just going to see some local life. Here in Ghana, every village has a chief. So when you get to any of this village, the first thing to do is to visit the chief, greet him, and then in the north, we say you send kola nut to the chief, then you can go around the community. Wow, beautiful village. Look at this. Each one, like I guess each family has like five or six huts, right? And then they have like a fence, right? So over here we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven mini huts. Over there, another seven. Over here, three. Over here, six. So it really depends. Lots of kids, lots of dogs, lots of chickens everywhere. It's real life. This is how the world is for real, guys. Very different. Hi guys, how you doing? Here we are with the chief of the village. Like I said, every village has a chief. And if you want to explore any community, you first pass by the chief. The chief doesn't rule the community alone. He rules the community with the assistance of the elders. We have the council of elders. And so if there is any issue among husband and wife or two families, they bring all those issues or disputes to the chief. And together, the chief and the council of elders will sit down to solve it and to bring peace among the members. There is no police. So the chief and the elders play the role, the intermediate people among the community members to bring them together. Thank you. Okay, so we met the chief. We met his family. We saw them making some tea, which is their local tea. Some random plant, I've never seen it before. Here we're gonna walk around some more, see if we can try some tea, maybe some porridge. I don't think they're doing fufu at this time in the morning, right? No, it's too early for fufu. They collect the high grass during the dry season because during the wet season, the roofs get a little damaged, right? Because of how much rain there is. And also, the reason why they use the dry season at this moment to renew or renovate the roofing is that there's no more farming activity. So instead of staying, doing nothing, they take this time to renovate, to work on their buildings. But also here, there is a difference between the buildings. Here, you can see it with the clay. That's their living room or kitchen. But ones that they are made with the touch, they are a storeroom. That's where they store their harvest, like cassava, yam. Is there anything in here right now? No. No, it's empty. Yeah, it's open. Yeah. So if it's open, it's empty. If it's closed, it's full. Let me see. Can't see anything in there. So in this storage, there is millet. Yeah. But like the whole thing. Millet could be mixed with sorghum. Okay. Yes. Millet and sorghum. Yeah. I don't even know what sorghum is. They are all of the same. One is red, one is white. I even have a guinea corn also. Okay. Yeah. They mix all together in one. But cassava and yam also in another one. So I'm gonna try the millet porridge. Mm. Okay. It's a little sour. Boom. Thank you. Take care. That was an awesome visit. We just walked through. Saw a few of the locals. Some doing daily life. And they didn't really care that I was filming. So they allowed me to film. Obviously at the end, I gave them the 85, which is one US dollar. So, you know, she's happy because at the end, they start saying, hey, money, money. And, you know, you have to give them something if you're taking photos. All right, let's continue this road trip. All right, let's go. So we made our left. And now it's 90 straight minutes. And you're in Tamale. Third largest city, market, tannery, and lots of delicious food. So at the moment, we're in the dry season. So you see the environment is so dry. But compare from June all the way to November, it's very green. It's very green. It changes completely. Literally after making that left, going down this road, the environment looks completely different. Over there, it's like African savanna, super dry over here. A little more lush, more green trees, grass. I mean, it just looks like the contrast is like night and day, you know? Very different. And there's not really any villages right now. It's just like empty road. Beautiful, I love it. The tarmac, like the road is perfect. Nothing like Mole Road. In Ghana, the biggest river is Volta. But this Volta River, it's made up of three other major rivers that come together. We have River Oti flowing from Togo. We have the White Volta from Burkina Faso, and the Black Volta. So partly from Burkina Faso, sometimes make boundary between Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire. And it was that Black Volta that they built the Big Dam recently to generate about 300 megawatts. So these three major rivers coming together to make the Volta River. So the drive is supposed to be three hours. We did it just under three hours with the stops we did, but they were quick stops. So let's say it takes two and a half hours, but we got up really early, 5.30, 5.45. We were in the vehicle and we flew out of there. And this is the journey that you're gonna make to go to Mole. Coming from Tamale, going to Mole, and then to reverse. And because I'm flying from Tamale, I decided to stay in Tamale the entire day to see it. You know, you can either go in the morning, mid-afternoon, night. I think there's five different flights per day to travel back to Accra. And I decided the later one because I wanna see the city, right? I wanna go around, see the tannery, see the market, eat some fufu. Yeah, we're entering now. Ben was saying that Tamale has the wache specialist. Wache specialist. Really good here. Yeah, yeah. Do you think it's gonna be spicy? Yeah, it's going to be spicy, as usual. I love wache. Rice, beans, lots of spice. Here we go, another city. Can't wait to find out. Man, this reminds me of Jamestown. Similar, right? Yeah, it's very similar. This is the old part of Tamale. So, old part of Tamale. Lots of different alleys, right? Like forever alleys. Obviously here, this is paved road, but in there, it's not paved. It's just rocks, dirt, vendors, chickens, goats. Wow, this is cool, guys. This is real stuff. Old town. Tamale has a population of about 950,000 people. Wow. It's the biggest city in the northern part of Ghana. It's the main town of the Dagumba people. Dagumba? Dagumba. So, they speak Dagumba? They speak Dagmani. How you doing? Good? All right, guys, let's go find some wache. I'm starving. You? Right, I'm feeling empty, almost empty. I know, man, it's crazy. So, let's go for some spicy wache here in Tamale. Give me the spice, all the spice. And this is it, walking through the back alleys of the main part of town, old town. Just got some, what is this, some lamb here, some sheep, coconuts. I mean, this is somebody's backyard, basically. This is how it is, right? This is very different, actually, from Jamestown. I mean, it reminded me of Jamestown entering, but some houses are aqua, some are orange, some are blue, different colors. Here we go. This is great, man. This is the real thing, man. I'm in real Africa now. Morning. Everything good? Yes. God bless. Take care. And this house is, like, falling apart right here. I mean, solid structure. Getting to the main street now. This is it, the wacha spot. I think we're actually gonna be eating in her, like, little balcony area. Balcony, what am I saying, little chairs? So we're gonna eat here. Okay. Nice. Hello, my friend. Wacha? Spicy? Yeah? Spicy, sure? She just made us some delicious wacha, some rice. I don't know what else. I think she added cassava flour, some noodles, and some black pepper, some spicy black pepper sauce. I mean, look at this dish. It looks so flavorful. Oh, man, it's, like, almost, like, Asian-inspired. So cassava flour, noodles. What's the black? That's the pepper. Black pepper. But is there meat in it? No, fish. Fish? Yeah. So fish and there's egg. Wow, hard-boiled egg. That's good. Yes, we did it. We got the wacha. Best thing to do is mix it all up, right? Oh, man. So many beans? Mm-hmm. Mm. So much flavor here. So it is gado, right? Gado? Dari. From the cassava. Mm-hmm. This is the best dish in Ghana, guys. Spicy. It has just the Asian influence, I guess, because the noodles with the rice. Man, I like the rice. It's more like, you know, I said it before, but this is, like, more like arroz con frijoles. Very Latin American. This is a delicious dish. Oh, thank you. Mm-hmm. Get some of the egg. Mm-hmm. Mm. I know tamale's gonna be special. Tamale. One of the best rice bowls for my entire life. Yeah? Mm-hmm. There's fish in the soup. Okay. And they add meat. Yeah, this is the meat. Okay. Mm. But the fish is browned. Oh, yeah, it's browned. So, you basically just have... It's what I meant, the stew. Yeah, we want that for the stew. Yeah, so, no. No, so, it has, like, a salty, salty sea taste, right? Like, it tastes like fish, but just because it's been in the stew. There's nothing like eating street food in Ghana. Mm. So, every city has its own style of wacha, right? But usually very similar. Always the noodles, the egg as well. Some of them, you add, like, some cabbage and stuff, some vegetables, some onions, some don't. This is so flavorful. I love the textures. For me, breakfast has to be delicious and filling. So, this beef, can I eat it? Mm. It's like beef jerky. My friends, this beef is delicious. It is so different. Hard to explain, but it's a little tougher than beef jerky, but then everything is around it, right? Mm. It's, like, very tough. Mm. It's almost like leather. Oh, it's hard to get through that piece of beef, but. Whoa. It's a little smoky as well. Would you give me some more black pepper? More sauce? This black sauce, black pepper sauce, it's the best. This is what makes the dish, right? I don't even know how to say this. It's, like, a little bitter, right? A little bitter gravy. Not sweet, just spicy. This is the best place in Tamaha to eat wacha, right? I'm too focused on this delicious food. You're not gonna finish? I'll finish yours, bro. So, three of us got the wacha, and it cost us 20 cedis. Get this. Every corner, they have it. Very easy and cheaper. So, 20 cedis, that's four U.S. dollars for three people to eat. A massive plate. Every street is a wacha center, but visit this one. Well, guys, that was our three-hour drive from Mullen National Park. This is what everybody has to do when they go over there. You have to come back to Tamale. If you're not going to Tamale, because you're not flying from here, you're going down to Tumasi. It's a little different, right? But if you're coming back here, you're gonna fly back down to Accra, I say take the last flight so you can explore the city. That's what we're gonna do today. We have about six hours to explore in-depth. We're gonna see the market. We're gonna see the tannery, which I had no idea about. I'm gonna buy probably a hat. They also make this here. What else we're gonna do? We're gonna eat some fufu at the end of the day. Anything else? Let's get to the market and see. Thank you. There's always a surprise. Always, always. Always a surprise. Well, this was a great surprise, my friends. Well, guys, I hope you love this video. If you did, please give me a thumbs up. Leave me a comment below. Subscribe to my channel for more awesome travel content. I'll see you in the next travel food adventure in Tamale, Ghana.