So it’s just turned 2013, Happy Loony Dook Edinburgh 2013 New Year! And to start 2013 off this is a really light hearted event I went to today. Every year for at least the last 26/27 years in South Queensferry, north of Edinburgh, there’s an event called the Loony Dook which takes place on the first day of each year.
The history of the Loony Dook is during the Christmas break of 1986, a gentleman named Andy Kerr said to his friend “How about doing something different to celebrate the New Year?”. His friend replaced “Ach, let’s jump in the Forth on New Year’s Day, maybe it’ll clear the hangovers”.
Along with these two gentleman some of their friends also participated in jumping in the water and some 27 years or so later hundreds of people aged between 8 and 80 now take a dip in the River Forth under the shadow of the two famous bridges.
The first year Liv and I lived in Edinburgh we didn’t know about this event and the next couple we couldn’t make it there due to commitments we had. Last year we almost made it there but after a late New Year’s Eve, Liv being heavily pregnant and our friends being in Edinburgh we all overslept and made it there just as people were coming out of the water.
But this year we did make it on time, in fact we were there an hour early, and it was great. I have to point out the parade that comes before the dip in the water is the best part. I was hoping for a bit more from the dip before the carnival was loud, colourful and really funny. Next year I may or may not go back again as we may be in Taiwan at that point but certainly if you live in the Edinburgh area and fancy a couple hours out on New Year’s Day then go check it out.
So that’s 2013 started. I’ll be doing a review of 2012 in the next few days and I’ve still got some pretty awesome weddings from 2012 to blog but after photographing three weddings in the last week of 2012 I’m kind of taking a break from photography right now. I’ve got three weddings coming up this month which I’m really excited about but hopefully this year I’ll be able to update my blog more often.
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