Nessie non-believer Jolene Lin couldn’t believe her eyes when the elusive monster made an appearance exclusively for her on a cruise down Loch Ness this week.
The 24 year old student from London was on a short break to the Highlands and no trip to the area is complete without a Nessie hunt.
But if she hadn’t braved the mist and rain alone on the upper deck of the pleasure boat, she may have missed the opportunity of a lifetime – and the evidence to convince her that the Loch Ness Monster does exist.
She said: “The weather was slightly drizzling in rain and I was on the top deck of the Loch Ness boat throughout the ride.
“About midway through the journey, I looked to the right of where I was standing and I saw a thin snake-like head emerging from the waters and moving a little before submerging back into the waters again after a few seconds.
“Thankfully I was constantly taking pictures whilst on the boat ride so I managed to capture what I saw then, and managed to take two pictures of the encounter.
“I was a non-believer of Nessie at first, but after I saw what I saw, I am convinced that there is something relatively large living under the waters of the Loch, and it’s not something which I have seen before.
“It was a brief and spontaneous moment. It was there and I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. No-one else saw it as far as I know and there were no other vessles on the loch which was quite choppy.”
Gary Campbell, president of the Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club said: “2016 is turning out to be a really good year for Nessie sightings. For the first time ever, all of the reports so far that have made it to the register come with photographic evidence to back them up.
“I think that this is because pretty much everyone now owns a smartphone with a camera.
“It’s great that once again a visitor to the loch has seen something while they are here. But as always, the chances are pretty slim when you consider that there are about 500,000 visitors each year and only a handful of sightings.
“I think that this proves that Nessie is alive and well. Earlier this century, she seemed to go into hiding for a while and we were concerned that the family Ness might be no more.
“But with four sightings already this year, it appears that she’s happy to pop up and have a look at what’s going on above her.”
The first sighting of Nessie was in 565AD by St Columba and there are now 1080 on record. All of them are logged on Gary’s website www.lochnesssightings.com.
