In Search Of Nessie
We drove down to Loch Ness this morning - a twenty-five minute trip from home - and, by spooky coincidence, turned on the car radio in time to hear this week's edition of Magnetic Memories in which presenter Claire White was mining the archive of Loch Ness Monster encounters.
The Loch itself is 23 miles long and a mile wide. According to one expert interviewed on the programme, it's large enough to contain the entire population of the world. Six billion people. Which would be an interesting sight but had me wondering if the local bed & breakfast establishments could cope with the sudden demand.
I'm afraid I'm not much of a Nessie enthusiast. One of the first programmes I ever made for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio Scotland was about the number of Loch Ness hoaxes there had been since the nineteen thirties. I an intrigued, however, by those people who are prepared to spend large parts of their lives studying the mysteries of the loch.
Among those I've met are Adrian Shine and Steve Feltham. Steve came to Scotland and set up camp at Dores more than ten years ago. I was pleased to see that his van is still parked near the shoreline.
There was no sign of Nessie, mind you. Unless....no, it was probably just a log floating in the water. Probably.