What are the chances of seeing a cryptid twice in a short period of time?
Nessie at the double By Laurence Ford
Published: 26 October, 2006
A YOUNG English couple holidaying in the Highlands encountered Nessie not once, but TWICE, during their stay. But although they feel fortunate to have spotted the legendary Loch Ness Monster, they say lady luck was not smiling on them as they did not manage to capture her on film.Nick Thurston (32), of Frome, Somerset, a former Wiltshire Constabulary employee now working for Vodafone, and his fiancée Emma Louise Jones (22), won a two-day holiday in Inverness and decided to stay for two weeks.
The couple admit to being intrigued by the legendary monster but were sceptical prior to visiting that anything prehistoric could exist in the year 2006. They booked a trip with Jacobite Cruises on the loch and set sail on Friday, October 6, on a trip which would sway the opinion of at least Emma Louise who was the most sceptical out of the two.
She said: ‘As we sailed along I saw a hump, much like that of a bridge, which was dark brown in colour and was relative to Urquhart Castle. ‘I shouted to Nick to get the camera, but he was unfortunately not quick enough to capture what I had seen, and then the drizzle started to come down and the mist closed in.’ Nick was not over enthused at the sighting, but Emma Louise remained convinced she had seen Nessie. The following week, the couple decided to visit Ben Nevis, and as they drove down the loch side road to Fort William, just after Urquhart Castle, the incredible happened. Said Nick: ‘I noticed what looked like a rounded dark tree stump that appeared to be around 1-2 metres protruding out of the water, which was very close to the banks opposite the castle. I only realised this was more sinister when I saw something like Emma had described previously that was also raised and appeared black or extremely dark brown in colour. ‘This rear raised section was around 3-4 metres behind the raised stump, but there were no other sections.
‘I yelled to Emma to quickly grab my camcorder from the rear passenger seats, which resulted in something of a disagreement. Emma thought I had lost my marbles as we were in a very precarious position on the road with a very deep loch just below us. ‘The glimpse that I caught only lasted for around five or six seconds, but it was enough to convince me wholeheartedly that this was no collapsed tree, wave, human, boat, seal, dolphin or catfish. ‘The tree trunk-like stump very slowly and gracefully submerged beneath the water within a matter of seconds at which point I was completely shocked and dumbfounded, as anyone would be!’ He said they were unable to stop as there were no parking places. Nick stressed: ‘I can now firmly say hand on heart that I have witnessed something remarkable that I would argue about until the day I die! ‘I know what I saw and that’s all that matters to me - people can believe me or not as it really does not bother me! ‘I can say to myself that I saw something very, very unusual that was alive and could well have been something that we do not yet know about! If only I could pop into Boots and get my memory processed - that will be the day should it come in my lifetime!’
He said work colleagues and customers remain reserved about his sighting, but a few believe there is something lurking in Loch Ness. ‘I am so convinced that I have seen something that could well be the supposed Loch Ness Monster that I would happily take a lie detector test to prove that I am not fabricating what I saw,’ he says. Nick and Emma Louise plan to return to the Highlands next year, hopefully for another close encounter of the Nessie kind.
Source:
http://www.north-star-news.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/695/Nessie_at_the_double.html
As people spend years at the loch and some may never see anything, it just seems odd that this couple should see something twice in a short space of time. Or I am I just being an old cynic? Or maybe I had one too many conversations with Frank Searle in the old days which has made me sceptical of multiple sightings?
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3 comments:
Witnesses are describing what they at first took for a waterlogged tree stump bobbing up and down in the water.
Assume it was that. Why is it so imporobable that they would not see the same tree stump again later on?
Assume somebody mistook an otter for the monster. Why should it be improbable the witnesses might mistake the otter for the monster again should they happen upon it again?
Now assume that some trigger-happy witness sees a tree stump AND an otter on the same day, and says they are both the "Monster". Should that be looked upon as any sort of a mystery? No, it means that the witness is excitable enough to make multiple misidentifications.
Suppose it is a REALLY unknown animal. Should there be any problem with the same witness happening to chance upon it twice in the same day? There is really no way of predicting how likely it is to see or not see an unknown quantity. You could just call it dumb luck.
Think Zen.
I agree that these stories sound rather unlikely to be reliable.
Said Nick: ‘I noticed what looked like a rounded dark tree stump that appeared to be around 1-2 metres protruding out of the water, which was very close to the banks opposite the castle."
He was driving a car, so his view was probably something like this link to Google Maps (sorry it's ugly but we are not allowed targets here)
http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=57.339215,-4.431524&spn=0,359.972577&z=15&layer=c&cbll=57.339531,-4.431701&panoid=-2VUPil75kNeuAjFIwBwPg&cbp=12,153.23,,0,9.79
The far shore is over one mile away, and I doubt that a motorist could see anything 1 to 2 metres high near the other side. If he did have superhuman vision, he may have seen an angler standing in the shallows over there - a popular camping area. And his chances of seeing an otter are about equal to those of spotting a rabbit on the banks.
It's funny how at times our eyes can fail us and play tricks with us. I once thought I was looking at a UFO as it hovered over head. It changed color in front of me. It went from red to blue to green. It turned out to be a faultering light on a light pole.
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