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Three animals swimming |
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Time: 1995, July, about 4 p.m.
At: Seljord lake. "The sea
serpent gate", a 526 m long tunnel at Road 36 south of Sanden camping.
Seen by: Kari Aakre, Seljord.
One evening at Sanden camping Unni Amundsen and her mother paid us a visit. She told us about her friend Kari who also had an experience a few years back. I phoned her, and after very little encouraging she agreed to tell us her strange story. Jan-Ove Sundberg (GUST) and two of us went south to the tunnel where Kari explained where she and her family had seen the creatures five years ago.
This afternoon in 95 she and her husband were driving west from Bø to Seljord. Her children Tonje 16 years and Kim 8 years were sitting in the back. Just before the tunnel a couple of cars had already halted at the road side, and some children and adults were standing by the guard rail gazing and pointing out towards the lake. Out there they could see three strange swimming creatures throwing up water and spray. Kari urged the driver to speed on through the tunnel. She knew where to go. At the north end of the tunnel she was out of the car even before it had completely stopped. She ran back on to the old closed off road that used to be going round the cliffs. Provided the animals still were visible she knew that the old road would present her a good view.
From the road at that steep, 40 m high bank she was indeed able to look down upon the closest animal. It swam towards the east 40 - 60 m off the land. In front of it but 250 - 300 m further out, another animal held the same course. Behind the first a third creature swam along, also at a distance of 250 - 300 m. Kari described the closest creature: She could see a black hump/back in the water just below her. On each side up front of this back something very powerful churned the water sending a spray of water along the back. All three looked alike and swam in the same fashion, keeping the distance to each other. From the car her son Kim came running towards her, stumbled and fell, hurt his knee and started to cry. Rather irritated she turned and said: "Quiet, you will scare the orm." Soon after she heard the powerful and deep hoot of a boat. The three creatures immediately and simultaneously sank out of sight and was gone in a wink of an eye. Kari could now see the touristboat Fjoellguten II emerge behind the point coming straight towards the scene of the now gone swimmers. The animals did not surface again. (I know from personal experience that the captain of this small vessel simply loves to hoot his boat whistle whenever he can.)
Inge Falk had come down from Sanden in the 3,6 m dinghy. Kari directed him to the same path as the closest swimming creature had five years ago. Her opinion was that the visible part of the back was a little shorter than the length of the dinghy. The animal`s swimming speed was very close to the dinghy when it was speeding. Her daughter Tonje saw the animals from her rear seat in the car. She explained that all animals were longer than the dinghy, but that the closest animal was the bigger one. She remembered three humps and the powerful spray of water. She did not follow her mother on to the old cut off road.
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| Kari`s sketch of the closest creature, both in profile and as seen from above. All three creatures both looked and swam alike. Kari saw one hump when she looked down upon it after the car had passed the tunnel. | Tonje`s sketches. She saw three humps from her seat in the car
before entering the tunnel.
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Inge Falk and the 3,6 m long |
Kari Aakre points and tells |
