Str?nge Creature Photogra?hed at Lake Windermere
The legend ?f 'Bo?nessie' is ?choing across the wate?s of Lake Windermere ?nce ag?in after what is being called the best eve? ?ighting ?f th? mythic?l sea creature.
Emerging from the mi?t with oily black skin and t?ree eerie hu?ps, this picture reveals ? my?tical looking beast gliding th?ough t?e lake.
The ?nap wa? taken on a camera-ph?ne by terr?fied IT graduate Tom Pickles, 24, who said an animal the size of three cars sp?d acros? t?e lake in f?ont him.
'It ?as petrifying ?nd w? paddl?d ba?k to the shore straight away,' h? said.
'At first I thought it w?s ? dog and th?n s?w it wa? much bigger ?nd moving ?eally q?ickly at about 10 mph. Each hump was mo?ing ?n ? rippling motion ?nd it was swimming fast.'
This is believed t? ?e the eig?th sighting of a l?ng hump-backed creature - affe?tionately known by locals a? Bownessie - in the pa?t l?st five years.
Mr Pickle?, who s?id h? watched the creature fo? 20 seconds, added: 'I could tell it wa? much bigge? underneath f?om the hug? s?adow around it.
'Its ?kin wa? like ? seal's b?t ?ts shape was completely abn?rmal - it's not like any ?nimal I've ever seen before.'
Mr Pi?kles's companion Sarah Harrington, 23, sa?d: 'It ?as lik? ?n eno?mous snake.
'It frea?ed ?s ?ll out ?ut it wasn't unt?l ?e saw the p?cture that w? thought ?e'd seen something ?ut of th?s world.
'I only sa? it for ? f?w se?onds but all I could t?ink about w?s th?t I had to get off th? lake.'
The pair - wh? both wor? for Shr?wsbery b?sed IT company CapGemini - were on the last da? of ? team building residential training course at Fallb?rrow Hall, B?wness, Cumbria.
They had k?yaked 300m o?t into the lake near Belle I?le when they spotted the monste? t? t?e south.
Mr P?ckles's p?cture perfectl? matches t?e description ?f an earlier sight?ng from the s?ores of Wray Castle ?n 2006 ?y journalis? lecturer Stev? Burnip.
He said: 'I'm really pleas?d that someon? has finally g?t a really good pi?ture of it.
'I kn?w wh?t I saw and it shocked m?, it had three hu?ps and it's uncann? the likene?s between this and what I saw fi?e years ago.'
Monster hunter Th?mas Noblett and TV psych?c Dean Maynard s?id this new s?ghting has fired up their enthusiasm for another search.
The ?air h?ve twi?e sc?ured t?e lake ?ith sonar ?quipment looking for B?wnessie, but to no avail.
'We're convinced there's something down there and were going to get straight bac? o?t ?n the w?ter,' ?aid Mr Maynard.
Photo expert David Farnell of Farn?ll's photogra?hic labor?tory in Lancaster, sa?d ?e couldn't rule o?t ? ?oax b?t this i? th? ?est quality image of Bownessie h?'d seen.
He said: 'It does loo? like ? real p?oto b?t because its ?een taken ?n a phone t?e f?le siz? ?s too sm?ll to really t?ll whether ?t has been altered on Photoshop ?r not.'
Sceptics remain unconvinced that something t?at size could exist in the 11 mile long lake.
Nigel Wilkinson, direct?r of Windermere L?ke Cruises, said hi? boat ?rew had o?er 100 years experience out ?n th? wat?r in all conditions and hadn't spotted anyth?ng unusual.
He said: 'W? carry 1.3 million passengers - that's is 2.6 million eyeballs - and none of them hav? ever brought Bownessie to ?ur attention.
Dr I?n Winfield, a lake ecolog?st at the Un?versity ?f Lancaster, said it wa? highly unlikely that an animal as large as thr?e car length? could su?vive in Windermere.
'It's possible that it's ? catfish from E?stern Europe and people ar? misjudging the si?e but t?ere is no ?nown fish as large as the de?criptions ?ere h?aring th?t c?uld be living in Windermere.'
'We r?n ?cho sounding surveys ev?ry month and have ne?er found anything.'
The mysterio?s ?quatic beast i? starting to dr?w parall?ls ?ith the infamous Loch Ne?s ?onster f?r drawing even more tour?sts to the Lake District hot-spot.
Ellis But?her fr?m Cumbria Tourism said: 'The truth is Windermere and Bowness a?e incredibly po?ular destinations and don’t ne?d gimmicks to get people to visit.
'Nonetheless at the start ?f the t?urism yea?, it d?esn’t do the ?ndustry any h?rm to have this kind ?f prof?le across the medi?.'
Source: The Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1357987/Has-Bownessie-caught-camera-
couples-close-encounter-car-long-beast-Lake-Windermere.html
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