New Year’s Day 2024

 
New Year’s Day 2024 and I’m up before dawn to drive down to Portobello with Daughter#1. It’s been raining  through the night but the rain is definitely tailing off and there is a gleam of daylight to the east. We park the car and walk over the sand to disrobe at Groyne 4. Through the gloom there is a man on the periphery of our vision who is dashing into the sea starkers. He’s in and out in about 30secs. 

We disrobe more slowly and wade into the waves. It’s lovely lying on our backs in the sea watching the sun rising over East Lothian while the moon is still visible over the roofs of Portobello. The water feels extra cold this morning and we are  happy to have a car to retreat to, but so pleased to have managed to start the day like this.

Later, after a hot shower and hot coffee, we drive  aimlessly through East Lothian along the lesser byeways  where at one point we both cycled. The sun shines and the countryside laid out before us sparkles. The roads are quiet until we reach North Berwick. It seems that the citizens of Edinburgh have turned their backs on a city scrum  of visitors and have taken in their hundreds to the coast only to find it is  busy there too.
We finally park at Longniddry Bents1 and walk along the beach. We notice several people in the sea but nothing compares to the huge loony dip at Portobello we see as we make our way home. We agree that being just the two of us in the sea as the sun rose was much more atmospheric.