Picnic Places We had several places we would go to and have picnics there. Most of them were near enough to go and have a lunchtime picnic there. Some were much further afield, and it would take several hours to go to. I have written about some of those, The Salt Cave, The Bump, and the Horse Market. The nearer ones, I will tell you about now.
We used to swim in a pool on the Bomfata stream, only about a ten-minute walk away. It was a very cold pool, so we did not stay in it for very long. But we would have a picnic there after our swim. The food we ate was all homemade, curry puffs being the most often food we ate. They were made of a pastry case with varying ingredients being put inside. The ingredients always had some curry powder mixed in with them along with salt and pepper, so curry puffs have always been part of our picnic food.
Somehow the ones I make now in Hemyock don’t taste at all the same as the delicious flavour they previously had.
The other thing I remember is the drink we took with us. We grew lemons down in the valley below our house at Mulu. So, we always had freshly grown lemons to make into the lemonade that we took on our picnics.
It had a marvellous view across to the Bump and Salt Cave but also right down to the Muger valley and finally to the Blue Nile.
We would also go and picnic at the Mill Fall. This was a terrifying edge of a ravine that dropped about 700 feet straight down to and beyond where you could see. We would never let the children walk to the edge, but we would allow them to crawl there on their hands and knees to peer down into the valley below.
We would also ride to the Monkey Place to watch the Gelada baboons which are endemic to Ethiopia. We did not often have a picnic there as they were quite aggressive and would come right up to us. We would watch them a bit. They were hideous to look at and seemed rather aggressive, so we would throw some bread rolls to them and then ride off. But it was great to have seen them as they are only found in Ethiopia.