Nessie, c’est toi? (Picture: Peter Jolly/Northpix)
Etienne Camel is a self-professed ‘man of science’.
But when the French pharmacist saw a strange shadow beneath the waters of Loch Ness, there seemed to be only one explanation.
He had visited Scotland with his wife Eliane.
The couple were driving along the A82 on Wednesday when Mr Camel stopped to take some holiday snaps from the west side of the loch near Invermoriston.
It was then at 3.30pm he noticed something ‘very large’.
For around three minutes they say they watched a dark shape 15-20 metres – 49 feet to 65 ft – long on the surface of the calm loch before disappearing.
Mr Camel, 58, said: ‘It was quite strange, I am a man of science so I never believed that the Loch Ness Monster is a prehistoric animal.
‘But when I was taking a picture I saw this long, long shadow. I called my wife over and we saw the shadow move. There were waves.
The vast Loch Ness has long-since been shrouded in tales of legend (Picture: Discovery Channel)
‘Eliane saw what I saw. I thought maybe it was a cloud, but there was none, or a boat, but none was near or reefs. There were small waves, like something was moving.
‘It was 15-20 metres long and was about 150 metres away. It was quite strange and then it disappeared.
‘We waited for about 5-10 minutes but it never came back. I don’t know what it was – we never saw any scales or head. Maybe it was a very large fish or eel. We don’t know. It is a mystery and very hard to explain.
‘We could not tell if it was an animal, but something was moving under the water. I have never seen such (phenomenon) in lakes – and we have many where we live – before.’
Locals and tourists alike say they’ve seen ‘Nessie’ over the decades (Picture: Getty Images)
It has now been logged as the second sighting of Nessie this year by the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register.
The resgister’s keeper, Gary Campbell, said: ‘There is a wave but its dips into the water and is concave suggesting what ever caused it is below the surface. This has not been created by a seal or otter.
‘It is very large and adds to the enduring mystery of Loch Ness. It is an unexplained sighting and a good one.’
Nessie expert Steve Feltham, who has set a world record for the longest vigil of looking for the Loch Ness Monster – now over 30 years long from his Dores base – said: ‘This sighting is quite interesting, the best so far this year, and is very tantalising. It is in an area of the loch where you get little speedboat activity.
A general view of Loch Ness from Fort Augustus (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
‘Clearly it is something quite large but it is not clear what has caused the event. It is a very interesting report though.’
On April 14, 1933, hotel manageress Mrs Aldie Mackay reported seeing a ‘whale-like fish’ in the waters of Loch Ness.
As she and her husband drove, she glanced out across the still calm waters of towards Aldourie Castle. There, in the water, she saw something.
In a rare interview years later, she described the moment to marine biologist and founder of The Loch Ness Project, Adrian Shine.
‘She said it was black, wet, with the water rolling off it,’ he said.
‘It went in a circle, round and down. She yelled at her husband “Stop! The beast!”‘
Mrs Mackay’s sighting was reported in the Inverness Courier on 2 May 1933 by Alex Campbell, the water bailiff for Loch Ness and a part-time journalist.
It is widely regarded as the first modern sighting of a monster in the loch.
According to Google, there are around 200,000 searches each month for the Loch Ness Monster, and around 120,000 for information and accommodation close to Loch Ness. The monster mystery is said to be worth £30m to the region.
Irish missionary St Columba is first said to have encountered a beast in the River Ness in 565AD.
The official register has now logged 1156 sightings from records and other evidence stretching back through the centuries.
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Nessie, c’est toi?