1 May 2013

Durham Duck Race

So in February I phoned my mum ( I do phone her more regularly than this. Mums out there, please don't panic!)
"Hello" I said, "I've bought two ducks."
"You've bought two ducks!?" she said in astonishment.
"Yes. Two little yellow rubber ducks. For charity."



The durham duck race was entirely new to me.
It's fairly straight forward, it's a pound a duck. The ducks are raced down 750 metres of the river and the winner gets £1000.
Pretty fun. I was confident. My ducks were in top form.
That was until I saw the competition. 10,000 others.
My chances were not great and I am pretty sure mine was one of the ones straggling at the back if its sporting ability was anything like mine.



Regardless, it's not every day that you see ducks tipped over a bridge by a tractor driven by the mayor.

I still can't decide if this was fun or just plain weird!

14 comments:

Amy said...

I really like how you've processed these photos today Abi. In the country town where I grew up we have a similar tradition ... The Duck Cup, it's a lot of fun.

boysmum2 said...

OMG what an awesome fundraiser, such a fun time was had by all I am sure. Wonder if I could organise something like that here in Hamilton, New Zealand down the Waikato river???

Sian said...

That certainly is some competition! A lovely post - made me smile and the photos are brilliant

debs14 said...

Things like this are what makes Britain Great! I love these traditions. They have a similar thing in the village in Kent where my husbands cousins live but I think it's a much smaller scale. I'm sure your ducks did their best!

Karen said...

Looks like a lot of fun to me, and a great fundraiser!

alexa said...

Golly, that is some serious competition! Brilliant photos - have you given them a little extra something?

scrappyjacky said...

We seem to have a lot of these quirky,fun traditions in our country!! But what a great way to raise money.

Abi said...

Thank you all! Yes, the photos were edited with one of my favourite actions called butterscotch vintage from the coffee shop blog. I don't normally run actions at 100% but this time just for fun I did!

Sinead said...

I love it Abi! Great photos too! They actually did this in my local town last year as part of a street festival, and every shop or business had a duck for the race. Unfortunately, I wasn't around on the day it was held, but it definitely sounds like fun - plus a bit weird too haha! xx
P.S. I got to blog my tea post at last! Yay :)

Jenny said...

Fun! They do one up at Alnwick Gardens, the ducks sprint down the waterfall. All in a good cause too :)

Alison said...

I love this!...am wondering if we could something similar here
Alison xx

Maria Ontiveros said...

I agree with Amy. The photos are great. We have duck races here, too. A great fundraiser.
Rinda

Jo.C said...

We came across a duck race on my birthday 2 years ago. The photos to compare are here.
http://sugarandscrap.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/birthday-and-duck-race.html

Anonymous said...

Great pictures Abi. We have duck races here in town but I've never gone to one - think I'll put that on my to do list. :) BTW, I cracked up when I read the beginning of your blog, it was a good start to the day. :)