Mystery Photo of 'English Loch Ness Monster' Taken in Bowness

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words do you suppose will be used to describe the first-ever image captured of "Bow-Nessie," a lake monster that reportedly lives in England?

Last week, two kayakers were nearly frightened out of their canoe when they spotted a large, hump-backed shape emerge from Lake Windermere, near Bowness in Cumbria, The Westmorland Gazette reports.

"At a distance, I thought it was some sort of large dog. Then I realized just how long it was. There was no way a dog would be out that far in any case," said Tom Pickles, adding that the supposed creature was the size of three cars. And he was able to snap a picture of it on his camera phone.

"Each hump moved in a rippling movement and it appeared to have a huge shadow around it, suggesting it was much bigger underwater," Pickles added. "Its skin was like a seal's, but its shape was completely abnormal. We watched for about 20 seconds before it plunged out of sight. It was petrifying."

Ever since the first reports of Bow-Nessie emerged in 2006 from Lake Windermere -- England's largest lake, located in the northern part of the country –- a legend has taken root with people wondering if this could be a not-too-distant relative of the legendary Loch Ness Monster of Scotland.

The 11-mile-long Lake Windermere is bordered by two towns, Ambleside and Bowness-on-Windermere, which is how the creature was dubbed Bow-Nessie.

Sarah Harrington was kayaking with Pickles when the unexplained animal rose from the depths of the lake.

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"It was like a huge snake," Harrington said. "It freaked us out, and it was not until we saw the picture that we thought we'd seen something out of this world."

The description of the creature, given by both Pickles and Harrington, who work for Internet technology company Capgemini -- matches a report made by a university lecturer, Steve Burnip, in 2006.

"I'm really pleased that someone has finally got a really good picture of it," Burnip said after seeing the picture taken by Pickles. "I know what I saw and it shocked me. It had three humps. The likeness between this and what I saw five years ago is uncanny."

Read more at The Westmorland Gazette.

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