John Grove - Norway

all photos © John Grove

I've been to Norway before - in October of 1993 I did a shoot for the BBC about whaling, beyond the Arctic Circle in the Lofoten Islands.

It may be cold and inhospitable at times, but the people and scenery are most definitely not.

Despite the cost of everything - especially liquor - it's a beautiful country, and the people are so friendly.

Five years later in August 1998, the weather was decidedly better. This time I was making a film for the Discovery Channel about a Search for a Sea Serpent in Lake Seljord, about 100 miles west of the capital Oslo. Sea Serpent stories likened to the more famous Loch Ness Monster in Scotland, have been abound in this area for a couple of centuries. The Seljord search team was made up of around 15 enthusiasts, with interests in the paranormal, new undiscovered species and other phenomena.

They had flown in from all around the world to join the Swedish team leader - Jan-Ove Sundberg - on a self-built catamaran, to spend two weeks searching for the Sea Serpent of Lake Seljord. To accompany the mostly amateur team - a 26 year old marine biologist by the name of Dr Jason Gibb joined us from London, to give the project some scientific support.

All of the camera crew had worked together before. This was a great help as the days were extremely long, due to the nature of the exercise. For most of the search, the team worked quite literally day and night! They had on board the catamaran a whole gambit of technical equipment for examining the depths of the lake, using radar, sonar & underwater surveillance cameras.

Jan organised three teams of around five to survey the lake in shifts throughout a twenty-four hour period. Most of the diving was carried out by Jason, and Kurt Burchfiel - a police officer from Boston USA. To begin with, the teams carried out their duties to the word. With most coming from non-scientific backgrounds, it was difficult for them to interpret the readings from the surveying equipment on board. Side scan sonars, remote control underwater cameras and radar equipment were a bit beyond the abilities of most teams! One day we did have a professional team to operate a robot underwater camera - but although the results were good, a few more days would have been a whole lot more useful.

To begin with, regardless of nationality the searchers all got on with each other really well. However, division set in when some of the team had differing views on how the survey should be carried out. Coupled with this, some members of the team began to doubt the real intentions of the search leader, Jan.

Week two, people began to take sides with each other. Jan started to talk about perhaps making "lots of money from the press", should the monster of the lake be found. With this revelation, the members of the teams began to doubt Jan's real intentions. Already the Swedish contingent - though fluent in English - had now started talking more to each other in their native tongue. Jason - the English member of the team - had already made good friends with his fellow diver Kurt (USA), and Dave Walsh from Ireland. Others - such as the boat's skipper Arne (Norwegian) had clearly decided to stay well out of any conflict!

Towards the end of the second week, even though they had had several exciting sightings of what could possibly be the monster - the search became somewhat disorganised, with the gradual deterioration of confidence in their team leader.

There were many different tests and surveys carried out during the search. However - much to Jason's increasing frustration - so much of the data and experiments were badly co-ordinated, and thus rendered scientifically worthless.

With this, Jason decided to conduct his own interviews with locals who claimed to have seen the monster - something the team hadn't even considered. He also arranged a scientific analysis of the water and plant life by some biologists from a local university. He wanted to find out if the lake could actually support a large animal, sometimes described as being several meters long. Finally, he and a couple of other divers tried a number of perception tests - to see if it was likely the "sightings" could be just floating logs, or waves on the surface of the lake.

Unfortunately Jan - who'd still not made any sightings on this trip - was by now very impatient. With this, Jan took the extraordinary step in showing photos of what was clearly just bow waves on the lake's surface - and proposing that they should sell them to the press! This was the final straw for Dave Walsh and Kurt Burchfiel, who promptly tendered their resignation. Following their sudden departure though no-one else was to leave, there was a gradual deterioration in the morale of the entire expedition.

There was reaction in the village of Seljord too, some were against the survey ever taking place. Sadly - in retrospect - this expedition could have been so much more. Most of the team kept an open mind on whether or not they would actually discover a real monster in the lake. The legends and folk-lore surrounding the lake were almost enough in itself.

This gave rise - for me - to the most poignant interview of the whole shoot, filmed just the day before we returned to London. A local writer mused on camera "It's a happy day, the expedition is finished. They didn't find the serpent, they didn't kill it, and so the mystery about the serpent in Seljord has survived...."

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Check out more about this story, on Dave Walsh's site - The Daily Blather.

Also Kurt Burchfiel's site at STRANGE Magazine.

This page is sponsored by Firklover Chocolates - the only affordable bar in Seljord!