The Confessionals - 83: Bigfoot In Britain

Episode Date: August 18, 2018

On Episode 83: Bigfoot in Britain, guest Andy McGrath - who originally joined us on Episode 40: Andy McGrath and The Beasts of Britain - comes back to The Confessionals to share an update on bigfoot, sea monsters, and giant flying birds in the United Kingdom!TheConfessionals Website: www.theconfessionalspodcast.com Email: [e-mail]: www.facebook.com/TheConfessionalsPodcast Twitter: @TConfessionals Tony's Twitter: @tony_merkel 

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I saw three long, bony fingers reach up underneath the door, curl up to grab it, and then disappear. When he came over to me, dude, he slithered over to me. And this giant comes out of the cave and they're all frozen. And he starts running and firing up this giant. With a giant move, He's got a spear in one hand and he's running really fast and spears Dan holds him up like this. Somebody else shoot him in the face, shoot him in the face. They basically decapitated. Feel something pulling at my leg. And I look over and there are two small gray entities pulling it.

And they're literally, I'm getting pulled off the bed. I reached my hand into this bush and I touch air. Couldn't breathe and it couldn't move because I know. I'm seeing a monster. Yep. Welcome to the show, everybody. You're listening to The Confessionals. I am your host, Tony Merkel, and thank you for being here.

If you've had an encounter or a story you'd like to share with me on the show, go ahead and shoot me an email. My email address is The Confessionals Podcast at Gmail.com. That's The Confessionalspodcast at Gmail.com. Or go to the website, Theconfessionalspodcast.com. Hit the connection section, and you can reach me that way as well. Either way it works for me, just get a hold of me. Now for the Art Bell iTunes 5-star rating and reviews, if you haven't heard, if you go to iTunes and leave a 5-star rating and review, you get a shout-out on the following week's show.

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I appreciate it very much. Now, for this week's show, we have a returning guest from episode 40, Beast of Britain, the one and only, Andy McGrath. Andy McGrath is coming back to give us some updates on what's going on in the UK and also to talk about the fact that he's coming over to the United States for about two or three week period. And he's going to be doing three different events where he's going to be speaking out a couple of them. So definitely look forward to seeing him on state's side without any further delay. Let's get to Andy right after this. Is your check engine light on? Don't ignore it.

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We'll retrieve the codes, discuss possible solutions, and even help you find a professional technician if needed. Visit O'Reilly Auto Parts today for our free check engine light help. O'Reilly Auto Parts, Better Parts, better prices every day. Oh, oh, O'Reilly. Auto parts Okay, tonight I am visited again with a great guest. His name is Andy McGrath,

and he actually was on episode 40, The Beast of Britain. And that was a great episode, man. And I want to welcome you to the show once again, probably about a year later. How are you doing, brother? I'm doing great. Thank you, Tony.

Really busying up at this time and getting ready to come to the U.S. to do a couple of talks. Yeah, so tell us about these. tours that you're doing and stuff. I know you got a lot of stuff going on here. Sure. So I'm really super super chapped and grateful actually to be talking at international

Cryptozology Conference hosted by Lauren Coleman at the Cryptosology Museum in Portland, Maine. So that's going to be on the 1st and 2nd of September. Some really, really great people talking there. Crypto Wendigo is there. We've got Colin Schneider. We've got

Jeff Meldrum. It's one of my heroes and Lauren, of course, and others too, and me. I'm sort of sneaking in, you know, stowaway in the conference. But I'll be speaking there too. I don't know how or why, but they've let me in. And after that, I'm meeting Katie Elizabeth, who's the Lake Champlain lady. She's been stationed at Lake Champlain, looking at the Champaign, I think, for about 10 years, I believe. and has recently

rewritten the new law in Vermont protecting the species and it got it to be pluralized as well so it's a plural species and not just one animal and so we'll be meeting there she's talking at the conference and we'll be driving down to Lake Champlain for four or five days I believe and after that

I'm hopping on a plane down the crypticot we have people like David Pauley's Travis Walton Bobo and Cliff from Finding Bigfoot and Bob Gimlin the man with the film, the original Patty film. So I do literally feel like a tiny, tiny speck amidst these big glowing, you know, bright lights of this genre.

And I can only hope that they don't figure out that I don't know anything before it gets the end of it. And do my whole talk. So I'm actually busy every night or pushing it, pulling it together, getting the presentation, which since I'm so on tech, will be kind of PowerPoint

with some sheets in my hand and some pictures and, you know, she basically laid out lines. So I'm just hoping that the British thing will just carry me through, but people will just be mesmerized

by the British accent. By the accent. He must know what he's talking about. It happens a lot. I did point out actually to my good friends, Les and chat recently on the Explorer show. I pointed out to them

that it sounds intelligent, but it rarely is intelligent. That's how we've been getting soon. It's probably how we've got that whole colonization thing around the world way back when. We just flashed the accent, and they said, well, they seem to know what we're talking about. Let's just give them our country. So that's my schedule anyway, from the end of August until I think I'm going to be there from the 31st of August until the 12th of September. Wow, fans, you'll be out here for a little bit. That's really cool, man.

It's really cool to hear that things are progressing for you and you know, you're being invited to do these different things. That's a very exciting thing to do. I mean, to be able to speak and be hosted at places with such recognizable names and things like that. So, uh, kudos to you, man. And if anybody's listening that is near those places and stuff, definitely go check it out and stuff. Yeah.

I mean, go back and listen to episode 40. And he's got a lot of things that he could talk about and, and share and we're going to get into those tonight. So Andy, we got some Bigfoot sightings we want to start off with, man. So what's going on? So the British Bigfoot, you know, this is a really contested subject in cryptosology, especially in British cryptosology. There's the, I suppose, a 14 side of things that's kind of run cryptosology here for a long time.

That things at these sightings is more of a spiritual thing, like the Wu or as a, zoo form thing, which is a term that was coined by Jonathan Downs, the head of the Center for Fortune Zoology in Britain, and a stowa long-term instigator and supporter of the paranormal and cryptozoology studies in this country. So there's that whole scene there, and there's another bunch of people, including myself, that think that these are just animals that are probably based upon, we were probably represented as the woodwolves, the man of the forest, hairy man of the forest, hairy man of the forest that was depicted in the Middle Ages in this country and the heraldry of our nobles and on lots of different, you know, famous paintings as looking more or less as the American Sasquatch is supposed to look now, is a hairy bipedal ape like man? So we have, I think the British Bigfoot Research Group is actually compiled. I think it's around about 470 sightings at the moment.

So they've got an interactive map that you can look at where the sightings. simply relayed in exactly the same language as the witness is given them. It's verbatim every time. Nothing is added to that. Now, I was lucky enough recently to get in touch with a very nice man called Hal Smith, who was a primate keeper for 37 years. He worked in zoos in this country, all around the world, spent a lot of time working with chimpanzees and gorillas as well. And he was with his brother. a place called Abernethy Forest in Scotland, which is part of what remains of the old Caledonian forest. So in Scrasby and the Scottish Highlands.

So it's not too far from Loch Ness, just to place it in your mind. It's about 4,000 hectares of forest. So it's large for the UK, but it's not incredibly large. Lots of red and rood deer and black grouse and all types of wild animals and blackberries and rabbits. all kinds of food sources, lots and lots of food sources.

And he's had a sighting here with this brother, anyway, in 2012. Now, just to give you an idea of what Scotland is like, it's about 5 million, 5.4 million people. And I think 1.9% of the total landmass of Scotland is urban landscape. So this is, it's a very wild environment. It's very under-inhabited. So lots of space for something to wrong around. So Hal, anyway, he was hunting with his brother in this forest.

And they'd gone out in the morning and he was just, you know, as you do when you're hunting, you're being careful, being very quiet and being aware of his brother's heavy footsteps. And he saw in front of him next to a blackberry bush, a dog figure crouching down, but it's back to him. And he says he's about 50 feet away. Looked to be about five or two crouching. and he was eating berries from the bush and suddenly it raised its head a little, turned slightly towards him, and stood up and turned and looked at him.

Now, his description, and remember as a primary keeper of this animal's was a seven to eight feet tall, covered in jet black hair, except for the upper chest and face, and his skin was a very dark colour except for the bottom lip, which was pink. Ted had a wide nose and large eyes,

and his features reminded him of an older, but no bo-chimpanzee. So it was slightly balding on top. But he said the face was much, much flatter. So around the mouth, so I suppose it looked like it had no muzzle. He said it was about four feet across the shoulders, longer hair on the forearms and on the chin. And he, as an experienced, a primary keeper,

said he's never been so scared in his whole life. It never threatened them. It never moved towards them. It just stared at them for a little while. And he put his rifle down. And it turned and walked away. Just looking back from time to time to see if they were following it, that's it. And it was gone.

And from that point, he was hooked. He said, they returned to camp. He said he actually turned around. His brother was already gone. He'd gone back to camp. And when he got back to camp, he was heat packed the entire camp up. Which I love, because these are very natural details of a real shocking incident. You know, that you don't realize that you've left your family member alone.

You've just thinking, well, let's get the hell out of here. I'll get a head start and pack that camp right up. So that's what it's done. And how since then he's been engaged privately, mostly, he doesn't want his zoo colleagues to know he believes in Bigfoot. Because, you know, even as a primary keeper, that's a career death. Sure. Yeah.

And he said he had mentioned it in an old. as he was working in after the sighting, he works in a different suit now, and it made things very awkward for him. So anyway, he's in a new zoo now, and he's working privately with chimpanzees mainly across Europe. And in his spare time, he's looking around the UK at Bigfoot sightings and in places where we've had sightings. So he's a very useful man to have in the field.

So that, to me, that's one of the most significant sightings I've heard about in years because of the qualification. Yeah, and that's the thing. I mean, his career directly applies to this topic. And the fact that he has, that he's had a sighting and will admit it to people is very, it's, that's a rarity. That's a rarity. I mean, a lot of times, these people who have these sightings that actually really are

within these types of fields like biologists and things like that, they don't talk about it. They don't talk about it. And more often than not, I think as time goes on, they just chalk it up as a bad memory and they must have misunderstood what they were looking at. I think so. And I think, you know, our minds have this little place when something very unusual and disturbing happens. We're able to tuck that event into that place, compartmentalize and say, and put everything else back into reality. So you take that little chunk out. That goes into the compartment and we reform reality, you know, in the other section.

And he was shocked by this. It took him time to really qualify what he'd seen, and yet he's got all of his experience. So what he did say to me, which is very interesting, was that what he believed that what he saw was a simian and not a hominid. So there's a big argument of, you know, is this a relic hominid or is it some form of ancient man or is it an ape of some kind?

I believe that we think it's a relic. hominid because it's upright. And being upright means manlike, but of course, a lot of animals walk on two legs. But this has got a manlike body.

It's fair enough. It can be convinced you that the face is very flat, which convinces people that they're looking at a manlike creature too. But again, I think it's the lack of a muzzle, the separation of features, and unlike most apes, that gives us that manlike feel again.

Surely, you know, there could possibly be an animal. an ape like animal that has those features and we're just projecting you know our our mental library of images onto the creature and saying well it's kind of like a man and like a monkey everybody says that all the time don't they and I think it's because of this this flat face and this lack of a muzzle anyway that's my take of it yeah it's it's pretty fascinating man and I you know this topic of

Sasquatch has been around for so long and there's been so many different theories and ideas as to what these things are but I do know this that I'm sure you have gotten flack over the years for researching this topic in England.

Especially, especially here. In fact, I'm still receiving. I mean, Deborah Hatzwell of the British Bigfoot Research Group she gets most of it because she's ahead of it. And she's a personal she's a witness as well. So that's what started her journey four decades ago. She had this experience in Boyle Hill Park near Manchester in Southford, near Manchester.

It's in this sort of towards Northern England. And she was playing Trude from high school with a friend. I think she was about 15 years old. And they were in this big manor house estate. There was a park. It could go into that sensory gardens and woods surrounding it. And she saw a seven foot tall, big foot, lean out of the bushes and sort of move. towards them and she you know she freaked out as any 15-year-old girl would

threw her friend to the floor so we'd get her first these are panic these are things I like in sight this is a panic response and ran home and she said she didn't leave the house for three years until she started trying to figure out what she'd seen and then she found out the witnesses and reports and now their group the British Bigfoot research group it's a hub for people to safely go and report these things and not be not guillified and what would happen before if they went to the other cryptozoology groups is that they would say well you saw a ghost or you saw a zoo form animal that a spiritual creature that appeared to be animal-like or that you know you're being

silly or imagining things these are from the so-called experts at the time and that scene is changing but there's a lot of controversy surrounding it so we do receive a bit of heat, let's put it mildly. We ignore it, maybe. We just get on with it and say, well, you know, these witnesses need somewhere to go. There is really nothing separating the description of these sightings and the American

Sasquatch or the Russian almas or the Yarin or the orangpendic, you know, for the similarities. It's just that they shouldn't be in Britain. Why? Oh, because there's not enough uninhabited land. Well, okay. So there was the national ecosystem assessment in 2012. They actually determined that only 6.8% of the entire UK is built upon.

And that's including rural developments and roads. So when you actually look at it, there's tons of land everywhere, but we're mostly dwelling in the city, so we don't feel that way. I live just outside of London. It's like a leafy suburb, but still, you know, it's a busy place. and you can be forgiven for thinking. There's no, there's no green space, but it's actually everywhere. So that's the overview.

Yes, lots of lack, lots of derision. I've heard lots of compelling evidence like there is no British Bigfoot. That's one of the most compelling pieces we normally get. So to disappoint, there is no British Bigfoot. So get over it or whatever. You know, that always takes me time to, to disprove. It's just one of those things.

But the witnesses are very reticent normally to come forward. I've not been able to get anybody on film at all yet, which has been quite difficult. Because, you know, they've got jobs and they've got families and lives. And, you know, what happens when you say you've seen some animal that's not supposed to exist

not only anywhere in the world, but especially not here. Yeah, there's a guy, and I know we talked about them on the last show, but I do hold them with a lot of respect. Jason, on YouTube, he goes by Bigfoot Tony.

Tony and Jason Paulson. Yeah, I know you know him and things like that. And it's just the work that he does with video is very cool, very good. And, you know, talking about people who have expertise in certain fields that apply to this.

I mean, he is a very good photographer. He knows how cameras work. And he's, he recently, I'd say a month or two ago, posted an example on on the internet about how, uh, this whole idea of peridolia can really be a real issue when it comes to you taking pictures with your iPhone. Uh, and, and he took a picture of a,

like just, you know, some bushes and stuff with his iPhone. And he picked out some faces. He's, and they did. And they looked like faces. And if, if that's what you want to see, right? And then he took a picture with his camera, like a real good photographer's camera. And it's so much clear when you zoom in and you just see it's just a bunch of branches. And so he does a lot of great work. I'm a paradox. This is my

kindest point of view on it. Let's just say if it's not clear enough to see, it's not evidence. Let's just see that. Sure, sure you were there. You saw something, but the camera

didn't see it. And what we're making out here could be leaves and branches in certain positions. And so the paradox, the paradox is too overpowering to consider this as evidence of any kind. And that's the best way to put it, because all researchers, I think, should avoid telling any witness that they're lying. And some of them are very clearly lying.

And, you know, obviously you've got to try to figure out what the reasons for that are. I usually hope that the reasons are financial because the other possibility is less appealing. for telling such life because there's a psychological issue, isn't there? If that's the case. And that's a possibility. But normally when people send me, you know, pictures with a red circle around them and here is a dog man. I think one guy once, what they send me?

Here in this picture, two dogmen. And on this side, a juvenile bigfoot, there was nothing. It were just trees and red circle. I'm polite. and I said, okay, thank you for the pictures. Unfortunately, I'm unable to make out what you photographed in this instance. Could you point them out to me? And he said, and this is going into the spiritual side of things now,

or the pseudo-spiritual side of things, well, you can't see them because they're cloaked. Okay, fair enough. Okay, let's say these creatures can cloak, and these creatures you photographed are cloak, and you sent me the pictures. I said, if they're cloaked, why did you photograph them? Right. what's the point and even

even that why would they why send it to you like if they're cloaked if you if you took a picture because you knew they were cloaked and they're there so you wanted to take a picture

for you fine but why would you send that picture to somebody that looks into these things and researches it if you know they're cloaked exactly but then I looked on the page this person's page

and there's hundreds of comments well done keep up the good work you know this groundbreaking this stuff that you're doing and it's literally just pages and pages full of bushes

and okay you know in the paranormal I'm not a paranormal researcher and I'm not a paranormal researcher and that's one thing I always say to me I won't dismiss what you're saying I won't look over and are there more things

that I conceive of in reality but I'm researching these things as animals not as paranormal things, not as portals. Portal punches, you know, punching through and stepping out and killing a deer and eating it and then disappearing back into the spiritual realm because you know how much these ghosts just love venison, right?

I mean, it's just, where's the psychology? You know, where's the logic in it? I think it all comes down to this thing, this time that we're in, this time where we're constantly looking, or this spiritual input, you know, into something. That's where you have people gifting and saying, okay, you can gift to these creatures, I suppose. Same as you could gift to a bear, right?

You can leave some apples out for a bear, but then you've got bears in your property, right? And I think it's probably the same with these animals. Maybe there's certain foods they like that might bring them in to take the foods if they're not very cautious. But you're not having telepathic messages from them, in my opinion.

They're not specifically speaking to you. And it seems to me the people have these special relationships and with the telepathic messages and the gifting and the daily interactions never seem to produce any single photo or bit of film of any convincing worth at all. And yet, surely they've got more chances than all of us put together, right? Sure. You know, if you or I see something,

we've got that couple of seconds to snap it. But the daily gift is, you know, where's your camera? But I can't really like put a GoPro on you. You don't even have to click. Get 10 GoPro front and back and just go and do your bit. So I don't need to mock it. And I'm not really mocking. I'm just saying whatever we present as evidence has to be evidential.

Otherwise it's not evidence. And it's fine whatever else you believe is okay apart from that. Right. I do wonder sometimes like with when it comes to those things, those people that have this activity on their property. If I had a crazy activity going on on my property consistently where it was like way I hear describe sometimes, I personally, I would consider selling a car to buy all the equipment I need so that I can do this.

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per month coverage and offer not available everywhere. Exclused taxes, fees and roaming requires new lines, subject to credit and three-activation fee video streams up to 480P. Speed maximums use rules and restrictions and supply. Is your check engine light on? Don't ignore it. Stop by O'Reilly Auto Parts today and let our professional parts people scan your vehicle for free. We'll retrieve

the codes, discuss possible solutions, and even help you find a professional technician if needed. Visit O'Reilly Auto Parts today for our free check engine light help. O'Reilly Auto Parts, Better Parts, Better Prices every day. Oh, oh, oh, O'Reilly! Auto Parts. Hey, it's Kevin Makely from the film Big Legend, and you're listening to The Confessionals with Tony. I want to kind of hit on another topic here because I know you and I were talking a little bit about the lake monsters and stuff. What's going on with these things, man?

So we've got Lochness. Everybody knows about Lochness. And that's something that's been very, very, where 84 years it's been now, that this has been a big phenomenon in this country. And if you go to Lochness, I think they have something like 3, 400,000 tourists come to the area every single year. But it's kind of like an old fairground, you know, from back in the day that's rusting and sort of wearing out. And the same sort of trips go on every day, the same boat trips and same excursions around. They've got the two centers or Miss Visitor Center and Nessiland, which is more of a sort of commercial type of thing.

And it's a beautiful area, you know, 25 miles long, a mile and a half wide. They say 750 feet deep. But all of the hills, they're covered in peat, which is this really, Or my key substance, that's very common in these very wet areas of the UK. And the water runs down, the mountains, through the peat into the lock and turns it brown. Even if you turn the tap on the lock, unless you get brown water. It's not bad for you, but it's, you know, it's very murky. So you can't see really anything below 20 feet below the surface.

And it's just a terrible, terrible research area. It really, really is bad. And I've been up there twice. And it's also, you know, a lot of researchers have been there for a very, very long time. And it's kind of their territory, I suppose, in a way. I think it's the most active area that we know about in the UK for Lake Monster sightings. So at least, you know, on a bad year, there's at least three. And on the good year, you can have up to 11, as they had, I think, in 2017.

Some of the very clear, you know, head and neck above the water. I wanted to on the banks of the loch or in the forest. And I think Roland Monter just wrote a book about that called When Monsters Come ashore. He's a great Loch Ness research. He's probably the best there is actually. And, you know, it's just a wonderful place to visit, but probably a very, very unlikely location to prove that the existence of the loch of this. monster. I personally probably would focus more on Loch Morar, which is not too far away.

It's got eight miles of river that leads straight to the sea. It's not really obstructed very much. There have been lots of sightings there in Loch Morar, including one of my favorite sightings, actually, which I believe was in the late 60s. I just checked the date on them, actually. Yes, so 1969, which is my favorite sighting in talk, and that was a guy called Robert Duff, was fishing from a boat in Mabler Bay on the southern shore of Loch Moro. And what he spotted then was it was a monster-sized lizard. He said, lying motionless on the loch's white leaf-stream bottom, looking up at him, estimated the cushy to be 20 feet long with a snake-like earless head,

slit eyes and a white mouth. So his body was grey brown with rough skin and it had four limbs with three toes visible on each front foot plus a tail. And he obviously was so ennourved by the creature that he left the area immediately. Now, there have been many, many other sightings, Alokh Mora, but it's really underpopulated. I think there's got a population of about 4,000 people in the small villages around the Lach. One end of it is completely cut off. You can't get there by car at all. It's just a really great place to have another possible monster.

In Scotland, you've got 31,460 lochs and lochens. Okay, and that doesn't include the sea lochs. It's just an amazing place, really. So one of the theories I had, since these creatures normally spotted by themselves, very, very occasionally with Young or others in tow, is that perhaps they have more of a roaming behavior like a tiger or something that they're solitary animals

that perhaps come together to breed or to rear young that they primarily in many cases move in and out from the sea I think that happens in Loch Ness and I think that when they are spotted in Lough for example in Lough Nest it's when they've come back in either through the other logs

that Lach Lach Lach in Lach Oik that's a lot of Lisping by the way those Scottish names they have it's good if you've got a bit of flam already when you start to say those things they both connect

to Loch Ness and there are the river nest leads out to the sea on one side and there's a more difficult chiny in the west out to the sea but it is possible and there have been other sightings of similar monsters in these other locks and

at both ends in the Riveness, of course, that's where St. Columba saw his monster in 565 AD, where the whole thing started, was actually in the Riveness, at all. And, you know, there's a whole funny scene of him coming across the funeral of a man on the banks of the lock in 565 AD, and he's told that a monster killed the man. So he sends one of his disciples in to test the theory. and it's kind of him, you know, very Christian. And then, you know, the monster appears, and he rebukes it in the name of Christ. And it's pulled away, apparently, as if with a strong rope,

and it leaves the man alone. Now, it's interesting to say the least, but lots of things have lots of things attributed to them. I think in Lochness, it's significant because there have been so many sightings over the years and not just since they blasted the road in in the 30s and started seeing them once again but because there's a whole history

of the water horses and the the kelpies in Scotland and Ireland so that's you know that's Scotland there's a lot of places there with there's a lot monster Loch Lomond gosh Lachor just goes on and on really one of the very interesting

ones I like was the Firth of Tay Monster. There was a in 2015 in Tay Port, which is near the Firth of Tay. It's in the east of Scotland. There, um, there was a film sighting. You can find it on, on YouTube just by going to Tayport Monster. And there's, it's a multi-humped, this caterpillar hump type sea monster you hear talked about sometimes. And some guys filming it from his window and slowly you see that each hump go down and

there's a big splash as the head or some, bulb of end goes into the water and that corresponds to some sightings also that were made in the 60s along the 885 road between Perth and Dundee and two different witnesses of one hour apart they actually were driving in opposite directions on that road and they both described seeing a long gray shape with a head more than two feet long that seemed to have pointed ears on it they said the body was about 20 feet long and humped like a giant caterpillar it was moving for slowly in the grass beside the road and didn't seem to have any legs. That one to me, it's more like your Bernard Hovelman's, you know, the father of cryptosology. It's more like his many humped sea serpent

description. Yeah. So we do have a few of those two. Now, apart from that, there's lots all around the UK and sea monsters as well, but all of a similar type of description. You know, we're talking about either a pleasysore like description or some other related animal. There was one I thought was specifically could have been a mosaiseau that was a bit of a stretch to guess that and another one I put down to being a type of nothesaurus because of the the clawed feet that it was described as having a double serrated curus over its back and that was and that was spotted many many times in the barmethystory which is just off of Wales there's lots of things like that now i think i mentioned to you once, I know I'm sort of running away with this a bit, Tony, sorry.

The Thames River Monster, River Thames Monster, that I was actually involved in searching for between the first and second sighting in 2016. And it's actually the thing that encouraged me to start writing the book. There were three filmed sightings, one from the cable car, near the O2 Centre, one from a pleasure boat near Docklands and the Thurth. And the third, third one on the speedboat tour, all of large hump creatures with a sort of snake like formation.

Very, very huge and been spotted in the River Thames, which is like in central London, it's unbelievable. Right? But there was, they weren't discredited these sightings, these films. And I was, I was very shocked. So I went looking and found that thing, but there you go.

One of two things kicking about. I always find the sea monster thing, very fascinating. Because, you know, not even just locks, but like just the ocean and seas. I mean, there's, there's so much unexplored water out there. We don't know what's out there. And just this past week, I had saw, I think it was a video on Facebook of, it was, it must have been Latin American because they were all speaking Spanish. But something washed up on the shore, and it was huge. It was some kind of white creature. It had a long neck. and you had a body and they were poking at it and stuff.

It must have been dead because they were walking up to it and they were poking at it with sticks and stuff. And it was about a minute long video. I think it was actually two videos of it. And you just see these people poking at this dead body of something. And I wish they would have walked around the other side because I think the other side is where the face would have been. And I was trying to make it out.

Like I was trying to think what else could this be other than some kind of sea monster? but it just, it looked like a dead washed up sea monster. It was very fascinating. I mean, you know what? There is really so much around. The carcasses, I always find it's very difficult because there's so much degradation that goes on while something is rotting at sea. And it's hard to make out what things are. I think bits of things disappear.

you and I know that I've always been very irritated with the old basking shark like decomposed basking shark explanation I think that's almost as bad as the sturgeon stand-in explanation for like monsters and things like that and especially with things like the strontze beast that we had here in the orchards off of Scotland many many years ago it was drawn and it was described by people who were farmers and and worked with animals regularly in such a way that it could not possibly be a decomposed basket shark. The animal wasn't in a state of complete decomposition when they had like this weird fiber on the back of

its neck right under its tail and when they sort of pushed it against the grain it led off a sort of bioluminescent sheen almost. They had this long neck with a tiny sheep like a head on it and they appeared to look like six legs and this very long tail that was actually missing at the end and even then it was 55 feet long and yet you know no baskin shock has ever been recorded at that length especially not decomposed so we make these like big leaps I think it's um it's kind of like a pervading paradigm of our time isn't it is that these prehistoric creatures couldn't possibly still exist.

So it's, and again, Roland Watson describes this really well. He says that some of the skeptics or some people would rather not believe such things still exist. You use something called the My Theory sucks the least theory. Yeah, so it's kind of like, well, you know, yes, the description wasn't like a decomposed basket shock, but that definitely beats saying that some prehistoric pleasaur from the, whatever, you know, Jurassic or whatever era, I don't know which one, is still existing and, you know, swing about in our seas to this very day. And yet, what I love about Lake Monsters and Sea Monsters is that, you know, very few exceptions. If you don't look at them in isolation, so the problem with the Loch Ness is you look at it in isolation, say, what could this log nest thing be?

But if you match it tomorrow and like Tejee of Lake Balow and Bonessy, the ones of like, Winni me, and Champ and Ogopogo and the Lake Libinkia monster, you've put all of the descriptions together. You've got a match. You've got your corroboration between people that have no communication with one another and are not trying to sell anything or doing anything from it, other than ridicules what most people get, right? or their name in the paper for a couple of days,

this is a match. I think a plosiosaur is the best possible answer. And I think the only thing stopping us from accepting that is this, as I say, pervading paradigm for a time, which is that they're dead, they don't exist anymore. They couldn't possibly exist because somehow philosophically that's uncomfortable for us. Yet, you know, we have the sealicants and the horseshoe crab and several species of prehistoric tree that turned down.

up in Australia somewhere. But these animals are larger. They're more impressive prehistoric survivors, aren't they? So we don't want them to be around. And I think, well, why not? You know, we've absorbed, or the theory of materialism, whatever, has absorbed all of these other prehistoric survivors,

if you want to put it that way. Why not just chuck a couple more in? Yeah, absolutely. I just think that there's far too much mystery left in the world for us to just settle to think that we know everything that's out there. I just I just can't imagine that to be true at all. No, me neither. You know, you get into Google Earth and you zoom into any way you like and you could get the impression that these places are discovered and inhabited and examined

in what we found even here in this tiny country of Britain. That is far from the case. Most of the countryside is uninhabited or sparsely inhabited. And after dark, it's just dark. There's no lighting, there's no illumination, there's no any checking. I think our issue with the big cats here are becoming ever more and more prominent in their sightings is a very good example of how an animal could quietly grow in number in this country without a snow to see. Is your check engine light on? Don't ignore it. Stop by O'Reilly Auto Parts today and let our professional parts people scan your vehicle for free. We'll retrieve the codes, discuss possible solutions and even help you find a professional technician if needed.

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I'm Darren Marler, the creator and host of Weird Darkness, bringing you true stories of the paranormal, supernatural, mysterious, macabre, unsolved, and unexplained. New episodes seven days a week. Get the podcast at weirddarkness.com or search for weird darkness in your favorite podcast app.

To hit the trifecta today, talk to me about these cryptids that are flying around. What is it? Like a pterodactal or a thunderbird? What are we talking about here? Not a thunderbird. There's really been nothing like the Thunderbird spotted here,

but it have been several terasaur-like sightings in this country over the years there's even been a very very recent one which was reported

to Jonathan Wickham of the live terrestrial site who's often in Papua New Guinea investigating the rope and other creatures like that it was reported to him from a lady that lived in Shropshire

in a town called witcher that was in September 2017 and she claimed that she was alerted to the presence of the creatures by a strange screech. That sounded like nothing she'd heard before. Now, the area she lives in is like a wildlife preserve this area. So there's all types of wild birds there and other things that you're very used to living in that area. And she had not heard the screech before. And she heard the sound was coming closer.

And across the way from behind some trees, she said she was shocked to see two teeth. teridactyl flying side by side that passed the trees and flew off fast until she lost sight of them between a clearing in some woodland and houses. It described them as being much bigger than the biggest heron she'd ever seen with large beaks and leathery wings.

She said they were both grey in colour. And some days later her 13-year-old son came running in from the garden. Same he'd seen a large bird with bat-like wings that made a strange screeching sound. So she showed him a picture of a pterosol and he confirmed, yes, this is what I saw. Wow.

There's been another sighting in that area that Jonathan's recently reported or another witnesses come forward from that very same area to say that he also saw something very similar. I think a few years before, or maybe the year afterwards, I've just double-checked that for you. But this is an amazing thing. How is it as possible?

So we've got a few more. This one I named the Air Valley Dragon. So between the years of 1982, 1988, a teradaductal like animal was seen several times in the skies above Air Valley in West Yorkshire, that's in the north of England, very rural.

It was in a wooded area known as the Devil's Punch Bowl, and that was in September, I think, 1982. This prehistoric-looking creature was said by one of the witnesses to be flying low and erratically on large, bat-like wings. It was also witnessed by originally nearby Eldwick.

who described a great creature with a pointed beak and short legs. Okay, 1999, another man claimed to have seen something that looked like a terectal. So it was a gray-skinned, batwing creature with a long, big, massive wingspan. Crooketeroes up out of the bushes in front of him and flew away leaving him confused, and alarmed. And the second man, Percy Waterton, claimed to have seen two animals of the similar description in the woods that backed onto his house. He believed that the strange creatures were frightening. there will be a population in the park and thought they might be nesting in the forest.

Southport is also similar. It's in the north there. So there's quite a few different sightings. And there are other similar ones. They go back to the 1900s in an area in Wales called Pendling Castle, which is in Glomorgan. And that's, the region in Wales I come from. And this was apparently the home of winged serpents,

small winged serpents that terrified the local population. They were very colourful. Apparently they had eyes like the feathers and the peacock's tail, multi-coloured bodies, head crests, sparkling with all the colours of the rainbow and appeared as if they were covered with jewels. They would often glide swiftly over people's heads if they were disturbed.

And the old man at that time who reported them that they were killed. killed off by the local residents for stealing poultry all of the time. So that's what happened to them. I think it goes on and on. There's a lot of different sightings like this. They're rare. They're not very common these sightings.

But they do seem to appear a few years or so. And I've always wondered, you know, could this be kind of a stopping off point between maybe Africa or Western Europe and somewhere else? So birds migrate to different climates and different regions during different parts of the year. And I always wondered maybe these creatures are doing the same. Yeah. And what are the chances of like the, you know, misidentification? Like, do you guys have any native animals that look remotely to what you just described? I think a heron would be a good fit.

The heron is a wading bird, long legs, a long beak, very long beak. but people here are familiar with herons. They can be quite tall, maybe about two feet, three feet perhaps, if they're very large. They do have very prominent feathers when they're flying, however, which are splayed as they're flying out. So I think to see something like that that appear to have bat-like wings would be quite strange. I think the qualification of the witnesses is important in these cases because the first one especially who lives on this, this preserve, she states that she's very used to the different types of protected birds that go through there.

It's possible. Of course, it's always possible. You have to wonder what would make somebody think that they've seen a prehistoric animal as opposed to a cormant or a heron or something else like that. Right. I mean, I guess if it is a case of misidentification, it's just, it's really somebody who, maybe just isn't familiar with the native animals, which I just, you know, hard to, it's possible.

Hard to believe, though, when you're talking about, you know, majority of these people being adults and seeing, they've been around a while, you know, so they, even if they don't know what the animal is called, it's like, oh, I've seen that animal before, you know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, the herons are very, very common here. I mean, that's the, that's really the only bird that would appear to me to have the size needed and the appearance needed to to possibly be mistaken

as one of these things. But yeah, it would be that bird. If you look at the heron, if you're got British heron, I suppose that would bring up a picture of what I'm talking about. I filmed one. They're always in the rivers around here fishing. And I would find it difficult

to identify some prehistoric creature to be honest with you. Yeah. I would agree with you on that. Yeah, but it's always about the witness, you see, because this is why I like to really focus on witness testimony. I look for really mundane, you must do the same, mundane elements in the story, because when you see something shocking, that the scene is always preserved in your mind, and it's a very tiny detail. You always remember, I remember on that day that I paused the tree and the branch was broken strangely, and then I saw this thing. So there's always these small, silly detail that don't need to belong to the story, but the witness can't forget.

It's not like a sign of trauma or a shock of some kind. So I'm always looking up for those tiny details. And some of these stories have them. They have these, as I call them mundane details. They're boring details. They don't need to know. They almost qualify the validity of the testimony. Yeah, for sure.

Absolutely. Well, Andy, let me tell you something, man. it's been a pleasure having you on again and sharing some of the things that have been going on. And I'm really excited for you, man, that you're coming here stateside. And you're going to be very productive in those two weeks, very, very productive. So real quick, before we get out of here, I just want you to revisit and just tell everybody where you're going to be on what dates and also where they can get your book and where they can find you on the interweb. Okay. Okay.

So I'm going to be an international cryptosology conference in Portland, Maine, on the first and second of September. I'll be speaking on the second, but I do suggest coming along for the two days. Then I'll be in Lake Champlain in the following week from Monday to Friday. And then I'm arriving at Crypticcon in Lexington, or Frankfurt, sorry, Kentucky, where I'll be speaking for those guys. and I think Cliff and Bob Gimling and a bunch of other amazing people are going to be there also me. I'll be kicking about.

I will be on like a little stand when I'm not speaking during the conference. So I'll have books and things there. But for people who want to get my book online, it's on Amazon.com or whichever one complies to your country. It's there, paperback. There's Kindle. And I think if you've got Kindle Unlimited,

it's free to read. I'm Killing Lundlimited. So you can just kind of pick it up and have a look. You can find me on Facebook.com forward slash bes solve, Twitter.com, or slash Beesov Britain. And I'm on Instagram and Pinterest

and the same way. YouTube a little bit. I'm starting to do a bit more on YouTube. But I need to sort of chalk up a few more investigations before I really fly on there. And if anybody's interested in having a look, there was a little TV pilot for a series that I plan to make, but haven't.

I'm going to be pitching that this year as well. And they can see kind of what I've put together. And then contact me on Facebook. I'm always happy to chat, you know, regardless of who you are, we'll take the time to speak to you. Awesome, man. Well, I really appreciate you coming on and sharing these things, man. Until next time, you take care, sir.

Thank you. Thanks, Tony. Great to speak to you. All right. Bye-bye. Well, that's the show, everybody. I really hope you enjoyed it. And if you did enjoy it, there are three things you can do to help support the show. One, you can go to iTunes, leave a five-star rating and review. Two, you can go to patreon.com forward slash the confessions and become a patron of the show. Or three, you can take this link to the show that you're listening to right now and share it around social media.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, I don't care where you share. Just share it around social media. And that will help the show out a lot as well. And if you're not following us on Twitter, go to Twitter and find us at T-Confessionals. That's at T-Confessionals. or me personally at Tony underscore Merkel. That's Tony underscore Merkel. And before we get out of here, I want to bring on Wes Germer.

He's been waiting to come on. And I want to clear the air about what happened on the show last week, his show last week, not ours, his. And there's a big debacle that happened. And I just want to clear the air with Wes tonight. So, Wes, you're on the air, man. Hey, thanks for having me on, Tony. It's a great honor to be on the confession.

Actually, Wes, hang on a second. I got a call coming in. Hang on. Yo, Jack, what's up, man? Hey, Tony. You're not busy right now, are you? No, I was just recording with Wes, but I just put them on hold because I saw you were calling. So no big deal. What's up? Oh, okay. Yeah, I was just, you know, thinking real quick. I know we were talking earlier about that wasp nest that you saw on your neighbor's house over the driveway.

Yeah. And I was just, you know, I was just wondering. I was wondering if you could possibly go to. to the greenway pest control.com and hit that contact section and just shoot me an email real quick. I want to make sure that I remember to come out and check around your house because I really don't want you guys to get infested with wasps. It's that time of year where they're really active. So if you could just make sure that you get in touch with me on the greenway pest control.com and hit that contact section. Seriously, that'd be great for me. So I remember to come out.

Yeah, absolutely. I can do that. With that whole wasp thing, I mean, I was just, You know, I was worried about everything because the wasp nest was really directly across my house on the other side of the driveway. And this thing was huge. I mean, I'm talking, like, you saw it. It was what? I don't know, 10 inches big, like long. I mean, it was absolutely huge. And the wasp were all over the place.

I wasn't going to mow my lawn next to it. And so, you know, I talked to Ross next door. And he took care of it the other day. And, you know, it's just, you know, I've been so busy with everything. I've wanted to look around my house and stuff. I hadn't had a chance. I know I told you I wouldn't stuff. I've just been really busy.

And to be honest, you dude, I've been very frustrated this past week. You know, Wes, I was supposed to be on Wes's show last week. And he just, he totally blew me off. He actually freaking ordered a pizza when I was supposed to be on. Yeah, I know, right? Like, it was just, dude, I'm telling you. Like, it was such a frustrating thing. And I was just so frustrated.

I told you I was going to walk around the house. I didn't get a chance to and stuff. But I'm definitely going to do it. Unless you're going to come down and do it, know, but I'll definitely shoot you that email to remind you because I just don't have time and stuff. And I'm not going to tell Lindsay to do it. But I've definitely been worried about it because every time I come home, a lot of times I like walking around outside with Ben and stuff. And I've been worried about that because these things are freaking everywhere.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I told Ross to take care of it and he did. And what happened was he went out there and he had like this heavy duty spray. And he really did take care of it. I mean, they're gone now. But the wasp nest is still hanging there. So it's kind of frustrating. It is what it is. At least the waster gone. But he used that like heavy, heavy duty stuff. And I didn't really want that around the house with the baby and all the chemicals and stuff. And that's why I wanted you to take care of you.

You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, you know, the heavy duty stuff, it does, you know, it does work most of the time. But it definitely can be hazardous for, you know, especially for kids and pets to breathe in. And so that's why, you know, when you go with the greenway pest control, you're not going to have to worry about that. And, you know, I know you know that already. It's just, I want you to make sure that you're safe and your family. family safe. And so that's why, you know, we always use organic stuff. Everything we use is

100% organic. And especially to take care of wasps, you know, that's some stuff that can be dangerous. We don't want you guys to have to breathe anything like that in and to live around that. So, you know, we'll make sure we take care of that. Just make sure you hit that contact section on the greenway pest control.com and shoot me that email so I can come out for you, okay, man? Yeah, for sure. I mean, I'll definitely do that and stuff. I actually probably do that right after I hang up with you and stuff because I'm really, I'm really concerned about it. And you guys, ever since I had you guys start servicing my house and stuff, I mean, it's just, it's worked out great. And I'm glad that I can help you out, you know,

because, I mean, you're pretty much working to own the company. And so it's one of those things where I'm trying to take care of my house and my family, but also support you. And it's a great way to do it. So I don't know, man. I'm just telling you straight up on us, like, your service is really good. I've really enjoyed it. You've been serving us, serving us for what, two, three years now. And it's really helped a lot and stuff. And especially with the baby now and knowing that you guys have all green products, I don't have to

worry about you guys treating the house and then with Ben crawling around and walking and stuff that he's going to get into something. Because you know how that kid is. He puts everything in his mouth. It puts everything in his mouth. It's unbelievable. Like, I never thought that

having a baby would be so time consuming. I was like, ah, it's nothing. But this kid, like, you have to watch him. He puts everything in his mouth. So, uh, knowing that you guys over at Greenway are really taking care of things on that end, it's really nice to know because it's just healthier and Lindsay's happier, I'm happier. And as long as Lindsay's happy, I'm happy. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah, man. Well, I mean, as much as you love your kids, we want your kids to be healthy. So our priority is always trying to be, you know, um, as safe and as, as effective as possible.

So especially when it comes to that, you know, your house is, is my priority to keep safe. Yeah, man. I wanted to ask you real quick because I have a friend that owns like a commercial building. He actually rents out offices inside his commercial building. And he was talking about how he had some issues with pests. Do you guys service bigger buildings or is just houses? Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, you know, we go from residential. So, I mean, we'll take care of your house. But we can also take care of commercial, you know. And no size is too big. Really, you know, we can take care of pretty much anything that comes in our way. You know, if it's if it's if it's offices, that's, that's something that we can absolutely take care of. Okay, gotcha. I'll let him know and stuff and I'll actually shoot him your phone number and hopefully he can get a hold of you as well and stuff. But, uh, what was the website to call it again? Yeah, it's the greenway pest control.com. Okay. The greenway pest control.com. Hit the connection section. Actually, no, that's my show. That is your show, man. Hit, hit the contact section. I'm the contact section. Yeah, there you go. Every time.

Every time I refer to a website and the contact section, I always say connection section because I'm always recording from my show on a weekly basis. And it's just, it's like embedded to me now. But the contact section, got it. If I go to your website and I start looking for the connection section, I'm like, what was it talking about? Exactly. Yeah, we don't, don't be confused.

How long have you guys been around? Oh, we've been, we've been servicing, you know, about 10 and a half years, 11 years now. Dang, man. Okay, cool. well, I definitely can take care of that email for you and I'll shoot your number over to my friend and maybe you guys can start servicing his commercial building and stuff like that. But yeah, man, listen, I got to get back to West and stuff. I got to handle this.

But, man, good luck of that. Yeah, I know. All right, bro. I'll talk to you. See you. Bye. All right, Wes, well, listen, I'm back with you, but I don't think we're going to do this tonight because I'm just... It's an honor to be...

No, Wes, hang on a second. Time out. I was going to have you... Thanks for Mike. Me too. West. No, stop. Listen, I was not going to try to be angry tonight and stuff.

And I had a really good conversation with my brother. I don't think I can handle this conversation right now about what happened with you last week on your show. So we're just not going to do this right now. I had a lady named Kelly contact me on Facebook this past week, ranting about you. And I just, I really can't handle talking to you right now about this lady Kelly or what happened to your show. Those are my friends. No, Wes, that's, West, that's it. That's it.

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