By Daily Mail Reporter
 

Is this Bownessie? Three-humped beastie spotted in Lake Windermere

The legend of 'Bownessie' is echoing across the waters of Lake Windermere once again after what is being called the best ever sighting of the mythical sea creature.

Emerging from the mist with oily black skin and three eerie humps, this picture reveals a mystical looking beast gliding through the lake.

The snap was taken on a camera-phone by terrified IT graduate Tom Pickles, 24, who said an animal the size of three cars sped across the lake in front him last Friday.

Hump-backed: The image of 'Bownessie' taken by IT worker Tom Pickles on Lake Windermere

'It was petrifying and we paddled back to the shore straight away,' he said.

'At first I thought it was a dog and then saw it was much bigger and moving really quickly at about 10 mph. Each hump was moving in a rippling motion and it was swimming fast.'

This is believed to be the eighth sighting of a long hump-backed creature - affectionately known by locals as Bownessie - in the past last five years.

Close-up of the alleged creature's humps

Mr Pickles, who said he watched the creature for 20 seconds, added: 'I could tell it was much bigger underneath from the huge shadow around it.

'Its skin was like a seal's but its shape was completely abnormal - it's not like any animal I've ever seen before.'

Mr Pickles's companion Sarah Harrington, 23, said: 'It was like an enormous snake.

'It freaked us all out but it wasn't until we saw the picture that we thought we'd seen something out of this world.

'I only saw it for a few seconds but all I could think about was that I had to get off the lake.'

The pair - who both work for Shrewsbery based IT company CapGemini - were on the last day of a team building residential training course at Fallbarrow Hall, Bowness, Cumbria.

They had kayaked 300m out into the lake near Belle Isle when they spotted the monster to the south.

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