 |
blocks-left.jpg
blocks-left.jpg
 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
| |
Main Menu |
|
|
| |
|
| |
| |
|
| |
 Home |
| |
| |
| Research Archive |
| |
| |
| Government Docs. |
| |
| |
| Video Archive |
| |
| |
| Encyclopedia |
| |
| |
| Community |
| |
| |
| Daily News |
| |
| |
| Contact |
| |
| |
| Newsletter |
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
blocks-left.jpg
blocks-left.jpg
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Support Us |
|
|
| |
|
| |
Find The Black Vault site useful? Make a small donation to show your support.
December's Goal: $289.00
|
|
| - $ 289.00 |
| - $ 260.10 |
| - $ 231.20 |
| - $ 202.30 |
| - $ 173.40 |
| - $ 144.50 |
| - $ 115.60 |
| - $ 86.70 |
| - $ 57.80 |
| - $ 28.90 |
|
We've collected $0.00 of our goal!
|
|
|
|
| |
|
blocks-left.jpg
blocks-left.jpg
|  |
 | | | | | | | | | | |  |  | | | | Paranormal: IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE GEORDIE BIGFOOT">2. Paranormal News | | | | | | | 
2. Paranormal News | News submitted by: MIB
A Visit to Bolam Lake
FT.com's intrepid investigator ZAVIAN FRIDAY risks life, limb and sanity to track down the Beast of Bolam.
Nighttime in winter is perhaps not the best time to visit a national park you've never been to before, especially when it is reportedly home to an eight-foot tall creature with glowing red eyes. But ever since I had heard about the sightings of the Geordie Yeti at the local Bolam Lake Country Park I knew I was duty bound as a Geordie Fortean to check it out.
My initial expedition was if anything a triumph of determination over preparation. Apart from the rather crucial omission of a flashlight and my own transport I had also failed to find any acquaintances stupid enough to be coerced along. But with the exception of light, transport and company I was actually armed for Bear (or Sasquatch) - Digital Camera, Nightvision scope, tape recorder, scarf and umbrella and an extra large bag of mints.
When I got off the coach, miles away from my destination up unknown winding country roads, it was already dark. It was the kind of dark that can only be experienced in the empty, open countryside. The two-mile walk up to the lake seemed endless, punctuated only by the passing of a lone car with blinding headlights.
Walking past dense woodland, accompanied by odd rustlings and the crackle of twigs, I was already freaked out by the time I got anywhere near Bolam Lake. And it was just as I was about to turn onto the road that leads to the first car park that I received my first shock of the night. I was walking past a small thin band of woodland that lay against the road like an eco-moustache when I heard the distinct sound of fast and quite heavy footsteps tearing through the trees.
Freezing like a statue my hearing suddenly sharpened and dominated all my other senses. There was no further sound, until a car turned the corner and blazed its headlights at me. After it had passed I came to my senses. Taking out my Night Vision scope, I scanned the wooded area. I was happy to put this down as a deer or even a horse in an adjoining field, and set off again on my trek. Little did I know that around that time Jonathan Downes of the Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) and a handful of witnesses had seen what they believed was the Geordie Yeti running very swiftly through the woods.
When I finally walked into the small lower car park I stopped and tried to take in my surroundings, but it was almost impossible to distinguish anything in the close, suffocating night. I immediately took my Night Vision scope out and found its green eye on the world not much help. Cautiously turning on the infrared boos - in normal urban night light this is usually so unnecessarily bright that it nearly spot welds my retinas to my frontal lobes - I took in my first eerily green, flat and dead view of Bolam Lake and Country Park.
Concentrating on keeping the scope focussed and not on my growing sense of unease, I edged slowly toward the nearest pathway. No guts, no glory I thought. Halfway along, when even my Nightvision became redundant I thought to hell with glory and guts and definitely to hell with being an intrepid Fortean investigator.
Back on the road I decided to view the lake and it's environs from the relative safety afforded behind the stone wall. The lake was like a dull mirror broken up by the snaky reaching arms of the trees around its shore. I could see activity, mundane torch lit activity, on the far side of the lake. I wondered what they thought of the bright rapid flashes of my camera as I tried to take some mood setting photographs. The park seemed peaceful, devoid of life almost. There was certainly no sense of the excitement and media attention the humble little Country Park had experienced that day right up to only a quarter of an hour before I arrived.
I had spoken to Jonathan Downes at four pm that afternoon, before the sighting, and the swift gear change of authenticity the case had taken. If I had known what had just occurred my slight feeling of unease at standing alone amongst the silent trees and empty paths in the dark of night would have been amplified significantly. But I was getting into my photography and, forgetting my discomfort, ventured over the wall onto the path next to the lake. It was here that I was to experience my second shock of the night.
Moving along the path I tried to pick out the surface of the water with my flash. Whilst adjusting the settings of my camera I suddenly heard a sound not unlike a voice, right next to me. I listened for a repeat but nothing came. It sounded like a man making a poor impression of an Owl, something like "Woo woo", or perhaps "Whoa, whoa." In hindsight it could have been telling me to move. At the time I thought it was nothing more than a night fisherman I had stumbled upon or maybe a fellow Yeti hunter. Nothing paranormal or unearthly had crossed my mind, but I still beat a hasty retreat back over the wall. I didn't think it a good time for any social interaction with total strangers in the pitch dark. Plus I couldn't get the film Deliverance out of my head - "Squeal for me little Piggy!"
I had a long time to ruminate over my first visit on the four-mile walk to the next sign of civilisation where I phoned for my taxi. I can't say there was an overall feeling of mystery or paranormal vibe about the lake apart from the unease that usually accompanies the wood at night. I hardly thought about the voice and the running footsteps, not until I received the press release from Jonathan Downes and the CFZ team detailing the highly successful start to their expedition.
Suddenly I was thinking about those incidents differently. Maybe I had been too swift to rationalise them - like a frightened child tells himself that those shadows in his room are nothing but furniture, just so he can sleep in comfort. Or perhaps the CFZ sightings had justified the more anomalous interpretations of what could have been very mundane sounds, in the same way they had justified the sparse and dubious eyewitness reports that had sparked off the Bolam Lake Yeti phenomena. More worryingly still, maybe I had merely felt left out and had hurriedly re-evaluated everything that had happened on my visit so I could have the privilege of being a witness too.
After a pleasant night in a local inn I returned to the lake, this time in the daylight. It was a completely different experience in the light of day. The lake and woods are quaint, picturesque and tranquil. It is hard to believe anything eight foot tall tramples around these environs. The only residents in evidence were the many waterfowl, particularly swans. Could they have been the perpetrators of the strange sound that had seemed like a voice the night before?
The most impressive and fortean aspect of the country park are the ancient settlements that border it. The main site on the hill at the top of the woods (above) is large and clearly must have been an edifying fortification. Whilst taking my photographs I couldn't help but think of Steve Jones' lecture at Unconvention 2002 on Hooded Entities and their fondness for guarding Megalithic or Iron Age sites or Holy Wells. In fact it transpires that Steve Jones had already shown an interest in the case and had been instrumental in urging the Centre for Fortean Zoology to investigate.
Is a thought form or an after-effect of an age-old protection ritual what people are experiencing at Bolam? This fits the description of many of these Hooded Entities, particularly the size of the entity and its red eyes - although Jonathan and his fellow witnesses did not see these particular ocular oddities. It could also explain why the many sheep and cattle that abounded in the fields surrounding the site weren't being systematically harvested.
But why are people only seeing it now? Surely something left over from the Iron Age would have been spotted before? With this in mind I hit the Internet - and pay dirt. Within the first few hits I found a local tourism site on Rothbury, a beautiful town just north of Bolam, called Rothbury..Buried amongst its pastoral verbiage was a mention of an old folk belief about a Yeti-like creature called a "Deugar" that lived in a cave near Simonside and was believed to live off the roasted carcases of lost walkers and campers. No embellishments or mentions of dates were made but here was the possible proof of an historical local link.
Yet again the whole story takes another step higher up the ladder of authenticity and importance. It now seems a long time since the initial leakage of the story on the radio and local television, with its tongue-in-cheek delivery and grown men wearing ape costumes chasing female reporters.
But this still leaves many questions: According to the CFZ these reports of huge Yeti-like entities in woods have been multiplying at an unprecedented rate over the last six months or so. What is happening here? Are these entities akin to the Mothman or Banshee and are trying to tell us that disaster is approaching? Is it an ecological or magnetic fluctuation that is bringing this phenomenon to the fore or is it just ourselves filling the void left by the debunking of Crop Circles and the American Bigfoot?
Whatever is happening here I don't think it's over. I for one will be returning to Bolam Lake - this time with a flashlight.
http://paranormal.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://forteantimes.com/exclusive/geordiefoot.shtml
|
| | | | | | | |
| |
blocks-left.jpg
blocks-left.jpg
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Article Rating |
|
|
| |
|
| |
Average Score: 5
Votes: 1
|
|
|
| |
|
blocks-left.jpg
|
| |
blocks-left.jpg
blocks-left.jpg
blocks-left.jpg
|  |
Online Stats: 
