New Year Dooks

In the morning I was down on the beach in Porty, taking a few pictures of the people going in for a New Year Dook, including my friend R who was one of the large Blue Balls group (extra). The main Porty Loony Dook wasn't until the afternoon but we missed it as we went to see our friend H taking part in the South Queensferry Dook (main pic and extra of H). The SQ event has become the most popular with the media - partly because it was for some time organised by the same people that did the events in the city centre but also because there is the iconic backdrop of the Forth Rail Bridge. As a dooker though it looks much poorer than the one in Portobello. The beach is small and rocky, there isn't room for all the dookers and they have to file down a flight of steps and shuffle forward in a queue to take their turn in the water. In contrast at Portobello there is a wide sandy beach where people can run into the sea. There were some Portobello pictures in the media but the majority I have seen are from SQ - there were several recognisable photographers from the press pack in attendance getting the shots. The woman in the middle of the crowd with the 2024 sign features in lots of them, as she often does.