> Steve Feltham has been hunting full time for the Loch Ness Monster since 1991. https://www.nessiehunter.co.uk/ This sounds like a great life > [...] > For most of the first decade my van remained mobile, which gave me the chance to move between three or four lochside villages. However, I increasingly found myself drawn to the village of Dores, on the south shore, from where I had the best view of Loch Ness that anyone could wish for. > > At about the time of the millennium my van failed its last MOT, and so I decided it was time to become static. The Dores Inn car park was perfect, backing on to the beach as it does and, thanks to the owners’ kindness, I had permission to spread out a bit, build some decking out of old pallets, and incorporate a large piece of driftwood to display my models on. > > My Utopia > > Now I have my perfect lochside base, as well as my own postcode and council tax bills. There is no running water or electricity, but the pub has an outside tap, and car batteries charged by a solar panel enable me to run my lights, radio and laptop. My shower consists of two buckets of loch water and a saucepan heated on the stove. The loch deposits driftwood for my stove right outside my door, (much needed, as I’ve seen temperatures reach minus 17 °C / 1°F) and a great big concrete patio table on my “decking” makes sitting out on a summer’s day my favourite pastime. I breakfast at this table, put my models out for sale, and wait to see what adventures will turn up. > > Tourists arrive to ask me questions, friends come to sit and chat, then maybe I have a Mediterranean style buffet, an evening campfire, a starry night sky, and, best of all, sometimes the northern lights. Then, when everyone has gone and I have the loch to myself again, I stand at the shoreline and feel the energy that pours off the place, before retiring to watch the night sky through the skylight above my bed. That, to me, is a perfect day.