Loch Ness Monster

Since it's pouring with cold rain here in East Norfolk, I've been alternating between guitar practice and vegging out in front of the TV. I just watched Jonathan Ross's programme about Loch Ness and it reminded me (naturally enough) about the single occasion when I was fortunate enough to actually see a large creature in the Loch at fairly close range.

Back in the early seventies - possibly 1974 - Phil, a chemistry teacher at the school where I was working at the time, suggested we write a book about lake monsters. We were both students of cryptozoology and had both visited the Great Glen on numerous occasions: to cut a long story short, we had soon booked a caravan at Abriachan for the whole summer holidays.

We spent each day watching the loch from a vantage point to the north east of Urquhart Bay, starting at dawn and winding up at dusk. For five weeks we saw plenty of waterbirds (Cormorants, Black-throated Divers, Goosanders and so on) as well as deer swimming across the bay - they did catch our attention!

At the time the BBC correspondent Nick Witchell was also writing a book, staying in a caravan on the other side of Urquhart Bay. One afternoon we'd arranged to meet him to compare notes and discuss our impressions of one or two of the 'professional' monster hunters who were then resident by the loch. Having spent the morning in Fort Augustus, we were driving northwards towards Achnahannet: to the right of the road there was a cleared stretch allowing views of a promontory called, I think, Johnny's Point. At its end was a pole with a triangular plate: this marked the start of the measured mile for the tragic attempt on the water speed record by John Cobb in 1952.

Phil and I instantly noticed a long dark 'hump' breaking the surface just below us: we knew there were no rocks off the point and could see this wasn't a boat of any kind. I slewed my Escort Mexico into a convenient layby and stopped in a shower of gravel: we decamped and tumbled down a scree slope to the water's edge. For around a minute we watched the classic 'upturned boat' back of a greyish, thirty foot creature as it followed the contours of the point, sculling gently, creating disturbances either side of its leathery body. Initially just fifty yards away, the creature turned out into the loch and submerged in a flurry of white foam...