An image of the large 'lake serpent' seen in Hornindalsvatnet, Norway and Europe's deepest lake
"We saw what we saw, no doubt about it", Andreas Solvik says.
Together with his friends Finn Nyhammer and Arvid Otterdal he was out on a small trip on the lake in Hornindal in Sogn og Fjordane wednesday this week.
Suddenly they became aware of some disturbances in the surface of the lake.
- And you believe that this was the sea serpent?
- Yes, I am fairly certain of it, Solvik says to NRK.no.
For decades it has been said that there is a sea serpent in Hornindalsvatnet, which is the deepest lake in Europe. At the deepest it goes down to 514 meter and many has wondered what the dephts might conceal through the years.
The three friends have all heard about the sea serpent that many believes lives in the lake, but they hadn't anticipated seeing it with their own eyes.
- I have lived beside the lake for 50 years, and have spent a fair amount of hours on the lake. I have never seen anything like this before, Solvik says.
There was something slithering westward
It was around 09.30 PM when the three men went out with a small boat. On their way towards the area "Havnen" they saw some ripples outside of Abelholmen.
There was a boat that had passed by, but Solvik says the boat went on the other side of the islet and therefore says that it cannot have been ripples from this boat.
- We stopped, and then we saw that there was something that slithered (awkward tranlsation for "buktet seg") westward, Solvik says to NRK.no.
Both him and Otterdal got their cell phones out and photographed what they saw. In the pictures there is something that lies in two arcs over surface of the water.
Then it was gone. We sped up and went over to where it had been. It was maybe 70 meters away, says Solvik.
- But when we got there there was nothing left to see, only small ripples in the water. There wasn't anything floating in the water.
Solvik has trouble with formulating what kind of thoughts they had running through their heads while they were out on the water.
- It happened without warning. But when we looked at the photographs we were convinced that this had to be the sea serpent that people have been takling about.
Ola Raftevold, a fomer hotel owner in Hornindal, has through the years done several interviews where he has spoken of the sea serpent he believed lived in Hornindalsvatnet.
He is supposed to have mentioned several times that the serpent usually shows itself when there is a full moon.
- Raftevold said that when there was a full moon the serpent came up to look at its image mirrored in the water.
And that fits, on Wednesday there was a fairly strong full moon that illuminated the lake, Solvik says.
Immediately after they had seen the serpent they contacted the editor of the local paper Fjordingen.
Bengt Flaten had himself been out on the lake that night, but hadn't seen what the three men had seen. He has no reason to doubt their story, however:
- I know these three men well, and I can vouch for them. This isn't some tall tale, Flaten says to NRK.no.
In today's edition av "Fjordingen" both pictures are shown of what the men believe is a sea serpent.
- The serpent is photographed by 2 different cell phone cameras and witnessed by three grown men. On the pictures one can see something slithering.
- We see 2 arcs, and we see the tail at the back and what must be the head in the other end, Flaten says.
The next day they went back to the lake with the pictures and compared it against trees and other objects in the background. On the basis of this Flaten and the three men estimate that the serpent must have been between three and four meters long.
Not intoxicated
Flaten also has established that the three men weren't intoxicated while they were out on the lake.
- The pictures don't lie, there was something that moved in the waters Flaten says.
- But as a media man you know that pictures can lie?
- I have gotten these pictures from 2 independent cell phone cameras, and I have seen the original files.
- Not an eel or a cable
Solvik and his friends think that they saw a serpent, and rejects that it could have been an eel or a cable. To the local paper Fjordingen Solvik says that it is true that there is a cable running through the lake but that it wasn't this that the men saw.
- It doesn't float up to the surface, I can guarantee that.
- There is eel in the lake, but hey don't grow to several meters in length.
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