There are so many things I could write about today: how beautiful Inverness was, how great it was to do a downhill at 38 miles per hour, how much I still enjoy riding my bike. But what I want to choose to focus on is Steve Heltham. Steve is the man behind NessieHunter.com, and we ran into him up at Dores, on the north shore of Loch Ness, where we stopped for a midday meal and to just take in the scenery. He runs a little shop, which I believe he also is living in, along a rocky beach in a sleep slightly-touristy town next to the OutDores Inn. It’s a ramshackle little place made out of what looks to be an old railway car with wood paneling on the inside. His life story is on a billboard outside the shop, probably so he doesn’t have to repeat it over and over. It’s long, but the short version is this: he got to be 24, had a solid job and a girlfriend, an interest in studying the Loch Ness Monster, and then one day just decided “the heck with all this, I’m going to move to Loch Ness and just spend my life looking for this thing”. And then he did. I met him, briefly, as I bought this figurine in the picture - Nessie - from him. He seems solid, sturdy, quiet, a bit weathered but happy. Wistful, is a word I might use. And in his mid to late 60s. The article outside is pretty standard stuff; he talks about just speaking with older folks he knew and hearing over and over how they regretted certain choices they made or didn’t make and how he didn’t want to end up that way - with regrets.
It’s a message I’ve heard before, of course, many times, but like many messages I think I needed to hear it right in that moment. This whole trip has sent me a bunch of signals that there are things that I need to reinvest in and change. For various reasons - none of which are bad - I’ve had to focus on other things but I think it’s finally time to come back around and really focus on myself and making myself happy. Going after my own Loch Ness Monster. Nessie is going to stay with me now as a reminder of how important that is.
