A man who quit his job to hunt for the Loch Ness Monster has been living in a van on the shores of the loch for more than 30 years.
Steve Feltham, 60, has dedicated his life to searching for the elusive beast, living in an ex-mobile library vehicle on Dores Beach on the east side of Loch Ness.
The full-time monster hunter first became interested in the mystery of Nessie at the age of seven in 1970, when visiting the legendary loch on a summer family holiday.
He quickly "fell in love with the mystery" of the monster, but it wasn't until Steve turned 28 that he decided to ditch his old life behind and move to Scotland in search of the beast. He has now spent the last 30 years hunting for evidence of Nessie from the shores of the loch.
From a young age, Steve, originally from Dorset, became fascinated with the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau, a team of volunteers who carried out around-the-clock surveillance in an attempt to capture footage of Nessie.
Speaking to the Daily Record, Steve said: "I just fell in love with the possibilities, the mystery. The prospect of grown men looking for monsters in a Scottish loch just captivated my seven-year-old imagination, and that never left me."
After returning to Loch Ness several more times on further family holidays, Steve's fascination continued to grow. Eventually, he began journeying to the loch alone on "expeditions".
By this time, Steve was in his 20s and was funding his trips through his work at his father's burglar alarm company. However, he eventually realised he wanted to search for Nessie full-time.
He commented: "Lots more holidays at Loch Ness resulted in me at the age of 28 thinking, 'what do I really want to do with my life?' Do I want to keep earning the money to get back to the Loch to find this monster, or find a way to move up and dedicate all my time to try and find it?"
At this point, Steve quit his job, sold his house, and purchased the former mobile library van - which has no running water or electricity. It has remained his home ever since he moved to Loch Ness in 1991.
According to Steve, who makes money from selling driftwood and Nessie models, while his day-to-day work life has "no real routine", he spends much of his time looking out across the loch. Very occasionally, he will spot something truly unusual.
He stated: "Last time I got really excited about was in 2020, September the 10th. It was a sonar contact by Ronald MacKenzie who operates Cruise Loch Ness boats.
"He's been driving that boat for 40 years and then, out of the blue, there was a very big sonar contact 600 feet down, which wasn't there on the previous trip and wasn't there on the following trip. I think that's the best bit of evidence I've ever seen."
He added: "I've only really seen one object on the surface which defies explanation completely to me, in the first year of being here. It was like a torpedo shooting through the water.
"To this day, the chase and the possibility bring me joy. Pretty much on a weekly basis, I'll get to see a new piece of possible evidence
"And that keeps me excited. It means that's another piece in the jigsaw puzzle of what it is we're looking for."
More information about Steve can be found on his website.
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