A Group Close Encounter, UFO landing in Wales, February 1997.

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21 years ago on the 4th February I had an encounter with a group of friends in Wales. We saw two UFOs, one of them landed. Every February I get the anniversary jitters. I hate this week. I can feel it coming before I even know the date. It is like some internal alarm goes off. I remember one weekend about 7 years ago, having a total breakdown over it at a crisis centre in Leeds and didn't even realise it was the anniversary of the event I was in bits over. My friend who was with me during the initial event was also was having a breakdown, she was in Spain and flipped out on the same weekend and contacted me, I didn't realise until later, we both had a breakdown on the same day without even knowing the date 'it' all happened. Steve was the only person who knew the date, i couldn't remember until he told me later. I am sat in the crisis centre this particular night having emptied myself all over this poor woman! I went for a cup of tea afterwards in their kitchen, I looked at my phone because i had been crying, there were people around, I just tried to vanish into my phone. There was a message from Danya which she had just sent, saying everything to me that I had just downloaded on this poor woman who worked in the crisis centre. Thankfully she was Sikh and had beliefs that meant she could accept what I was saying. I was lucky, but I didn't care I was so overwhelmed I just had to empty myself of it. Lock me up, I don't care anymore, I can't live with this.

It was 1997 the first weekend in February. My boyfriend at the time was a guy called Steve. We used to go to Wales for rides out of the bike, we had stayed in cottages and camped. This particular weekend we went to Wales in Steve's uncle Johns car with Danya, Steve's sister. Danya had her son with her and I had mine with me they were aged four and five. We drove for miles in terrible wet weather, I had no idea where we were going, Wales was all I knew. We were driving through fog a lot for the final part of the journey. It was truly grey and miserable and we couldn't wait to get out of the car. Finally we reached our destination, a cottage in a village called Glyn Ciriog, I think the house is called Cairn Fern. Nice house,it had big out-houses full of old farm kit, lots of tins of nails and boxes of rusting things. We had a quick nosey around the property outside, inside it was lovely a couple of living rooms, a games room, nice big kitchen, the best bit was the open fires. I remember we didn't know where the axe was so we were jumping on branches to snap them, it turned into a game because on of the was very springy. I don't really remember much about the Friday, it was just a travel day, settle in, have a nosey. On Saturday I remember us walking to the shops, I was completely irritated by something, i don't even know what, we all were a bit odd that day. I remember walking ahead of everyone, I was probably hungry, I am a ratty bag when I am hungry. That's about as much as I can recall of the day time.

It was about 7-7.30 pm on Saturday night. I was upstairs in the bedroom, I had my bag on the bed in front of me, I was taking things out of it to go have a nice relaxing bath in the overly pink bathroom when I heard Steve calling my name urgently. Because the children were loud and shouting I thought something was up so I ran down stairs to find the children just playing, Steve was poking his head into the kitchen doorway from outside saying "come here quick", he probably said something else but that's is what i remember. So i went outside with him and we walked over to the wall by the outhouses and he pointed at the sky and said "look there are some lights in the distance" and pointed off to I'll say 1 o'clock so we know the angles so you can picture it better.

I am looking out and all I can see is a thick low blanket of cloud. It wasn't raining but it was heavy cloud cover and was really, really low. For a long time after that night I couldn't understand why the clouds were so low, I thought I'd exaggerated that in my mind, I had forgotten in the aftermath that we were on top of a mountain. So I am looking but I couldn't see anything for a while. He continued to point, I followed his finger trying to catch on to his line of sight, then I see it. A little squiggle of light. It came on and went off. I immediately said "It's lightning". He said "It's not, watch it" So I stood and looked and watched. Sure enough the 'lightning' came back on again and went off, then back on again and off. After I saw the lights a few times it became obvious whatever it was had a very uniformed pattern to the way it lit up and it was moving away from us towards Merseyside, we were in North Wales five miles from Berwyn. After some minutes, maybe five minutes, it stopped. It stayed where it was but the flickering remained the same, after another minute or so we saw that it looked bigger than before. It was just a tiny flicker before, now it looked larger and brighter. It was then in a completely different place it had moved in a diagonal motion towards us, then it moved in a diagonal motion away from us, then again towards us, it repeated this as It slowly zig zagged towards us.

When it was directly at 12 o' clock it was huge. We had to look from 11 o'clock to 1 o' clock to see the lights end. To me it looked like an enormous jelly fish rippling bright white but gentle pink, yellow and hints of green through the clouds. I don't think the craft itself was a mile wide but the lights it emitted were spreading to at least that. I have had people ask me how can you see lights in clouds, how can you see lightning in clouds? If it is bright enough you will see it. This was very very bright, it made the clouds look like mashed potato with light beaming through it. We could see the different densities in the clouds as the lights rippled. The way the lights flickered out sideways through the clouds gave it an undulating effect, like a jelly fish's tentacles in water.

By this time all of us were outside. It was exhilarating, we were all literally awe struck. It came closer at an angle and eventually was above the field which was to the left of our original position where we had been looking out over the forest. It stopped over the field, opposite the house now, still in the clouds, still rippling this bright light. It then drifted so slowly you would hardly notice it moving until it was directly over us. We all stood gawping up at it in complete disbelief, none of us spoke much. I noticed that the sheep were all lying down and silent, something Steve noted too but we didn't comment at the time, we spoke of that later. I know Steve went inside and left a message on the answer machine of the house we shared with others telling them what was happening. He didn't call the police or the airport. No such thing occurred to any of us. In fact our behaviour throughout was as bizarre as the event itself.

We are all standing there looking up, I remember John stating "It's the aurora borealis" I laughed and said "In Wales"!? I remember turning to my right to look at Danya who was stood on a wall that was about two feet high, a border of sorts, her eyes were so wide and her face lit with this very blue yet white light. I can remember Steve being to my right slightly behind me, also standing on something, a large rock of some sort I think? he was just stood staring, my son was by my side when i saw an orange strobe light on the wall of the house to my right, it flashed rapidly, bright orange. I turned to look and there was a large sphere on the ground. Tall enough for a man to get in. It was emitting steam or mist which was swirling all around it as it pulsed a very dull grey light every couple of seconds. I said "Oh look another one", it was given very little attention. We continued to look up and forgot all about the sphere.

As we stood about staring up in disbelief, not knowing what to do, not even thinking what should we do, just standing there empty headed looking up, my son tugged hard on my clothes, when I looked at him he was terrified. His hair was shaking, his eyes were wide. He said "Mummy Mummy, a hand just came through the hedge and touched my foot! It wasn't my imagination, I saw it with my eyes, I thought I was the hedge but it was a hand"! At that point you would rationalise the situation by looking over the very small hedge wouldn't you? You'd think so wouldn't you? I didn't. Neither did Steve. I don't know why, the thought never entered our heads. Steve was right behind me at this point. I turned and said "The kids are getting scared" and Steve said "Come on lets get them inside". I still can't to this day figure out why I didn't look. If my son said there was a monster under his bed I would prove to him there wasn't. But nothing we were doing could be considered normal. We were not switched on at all.

As we turned to the others we found John with Danya's son, and the axe for chopping wood, he was hacking into the door frame of the woodshed distracting Danya's son, his nephew, from what was going on. I think he was doing it for himself as much as the child, I think the children were the only ones who were switched on and had any idea of the potential danger we were in. We gathered ourselves together and went back into the cottage. As soon as we walked through the door it was like nothing had happened, like we'd watched some fireworks and got bored. John and Danya walked straight into the living room to watch TV, the children went back to where they were when I came downstairs and started playing again like they hadn't skipped a beat. Steve picked up a dishcloth and started drying the dishes! I just looked at them astounded. What the hell were they being so weird for? Not even registering that the whole thing was weird. Thinking my next actions were entirely normal and suitable for the occasion,or not thinking at all more precisely, I looked at them as if they were crazy, I said "F*ck this! I'm off back outside"! and promptly marched back outside on my own, shaking my head in disbelief at their behaviour!! This still makes my head go cold twenty one years later.

I marched up the garden path without any thought. No thought to my son saying he had seen a hand, no thought to any kind of danger. I was so totally enthralled in what was happening, I wasn't in the least bit afraid, far from it, I was excited. I walked past the end of the house, looked at the sphere on the ground which had stopped pulsing and was just a very dull grey, I can remember shaking my head from side to side in disbelief but still was totally unafraid, totally switched off. I walked up to the object that had drifted over to us. It's central circle of light was about sixty feet across. It was so brilliantly white but when it hit the surface of anything the light was blue. Going outwards from the central circle of light were lines of light, like fluorescent strips, with the central circle of light it looked like the underneath of a mushroom, white circle in the middle, fins going to the edges, the lights rotated one way and at the very edges of those fluorescent strips was a tiny light that went the opposite way. It was so very bright but I didn't have to shield my eyes against it. There was no sound, it was utterly silent, as was the sphere which had perched itself under the overhang of some trees at the back of the house somehow. I stood there looking up at this light thinking now what? This is crazy, I can't believe this, you know, that kind of thought pattern. Still completely oblivious to any danger I might be in. No one in the house came after me saying are you mad?! Don't go out there alone! As I am standing there in this switched off state of incredulity In four seconds flat everything changed. Forever. What I heard haunts me to this day. I have tried to rationalise it but there is no way to do so. Behind me was patch of dirt, the ground was hard packed mud, there was no growth of any kind on it, it was winter, wet, it was just hard packed earth, a chicken wire fence at the property boundary and the forgotten about (again) sphere. What I heard was two bare feet running towards me, fast, then I felt something bump into my lower back as if it was running past me, it dragged my jumper with it. I don't know what it was or where it went because to my left was a four foot stone wall, in front of me was the hedge my son said he saw the hand, there was nowhere for whatever it was to go, I'd have heard it hit the wall it was that fast. I don't know what it was that touched me, a sheep would never come near me, it would run away, but the sheep were all subdued. I think there is a clue in that because we were all subdued, well until that moment anyway.

It was like I had been hit by a truck. If you have ever had that full pulse of adrenaline in your body you will know that it literally feels like you have been hit by something hard and heavy. I was running before I even realised i was running but I couldn't see anything. I had gone blind. I couldn't see a thing and just kept running. I wasn't fully aware of anything this was pure flight, abject terror, I was literally running for my life. I don't know if that was what was called hysterical blindness in the war, people have suggested I was abducted, the tug was me going up into the craft, then I hit the ground running with some kind of mental block in play from the aliens. Well I don't say that because I don't know if that is true. I didn't see anything, I was blind. I remember what I heard and it sounded like my son running across his room at night, that kind of quick run grab a toy and leap into bed quick and pretend to be asleep after being told about ten times to stay in bed. That's exactly how it played out, rapid small fast slapping sounds like little legs running bare feet slapping on mud.

I literally ran for my life, I can't explain to you how that feels. Suddenly I felt danger, suddenly everything about the situation felt dangerous. We were in grave danger. I was panicked. I ran into the house and saw the children and stopped dead. I just stood there freaking out without moving. I quietly told Steve something just came up to me and touched me, his response was to look at the clock on the cooker and said, "Well you haven't been out there long so you haven't had any missing time" like that was the most normal thing to say. That was the end of me after that. Everything was super surreal. Everything was too loud, too bright, I was panicked beyond belief. I made him lock doors, close curtains, I wouldn't go to the toilet alone, I was so utterly freaked out. I remember we had somehow got the kids to bed, I was sat in the middle of the bed and couldn't put my feet on the floor, like a child frightened of monsters under the bed grabbing my ankles. I remember Steve looking out of the window, he shut the curtains, didn't say anything. I didn't ask. Eventually somehow, I don't know how or even why but we went to sleep. The next day was awful, everyone was at each others throats, John was foul, Danya was screaming at me, We decided to spend the day apart. It was so bad in the end Steve booked a taxi and some coach tickets and we sneaked off at five the next morning, got the taxi to Wrexham and got the coach back to Leeds, we never said a word to them. It was that bad. I found out thirteen years later when we found each other again on Facebook that John's car wouldn't start, they had to stay another night. John was being strange, Danya was terrified. It was a horror show from start to finish. The vehicle recovery agency he was with came out the day after that and the car started, it was fine.

We didn't report this to anyone, we didn't really tell many people. It had a permanent effect on us all. In the immediate aftermath I couldn't go anywhere if the lights weren't on. I would open doors to rooms so fast if anyone was behind it they would be seriously injured and I would hit the light switch at the same time. We had a bend in the stairs and one day I remember reaching the bend and the landing being dark so I went back down stairs again to put the light on. My relationship with Steve didn't last long after that. We were all too wrecked. I was especially traumatised. No one could understand the change in me. It was drastic. Even my mum in frustration one day shouted at me "You've never been the same since you went to Wales". She was right. I have never been the same since. None of us have. When we found each other after thirteen years I was relieved, I had been singing this song alone on the net for about five years. I hoped for two things originally. I hoped that first of all Steve was going to have found some easy explanation and tell me it didn't play out as I remembered. I had over exaggerated everything in my mind and there would be a feeling of comfort, something I hadn't had since that moment. All ideas of safety gone. No lid on my life. Nothing from the top of my head to the furthest reaches of space. There is no bubble.It doesn't matter if you lock your doors, or have the mightiest military in the universe. But he said it played out exactly as I remembered.

When you see something like that and you are NOT a UFO researcher or anyone from the military who might know of secret craft, your perceptions are "That's a spacecraft with aliens in it" Your perceptions are completely automatic and nothing conscious. To us that was an alien spaceship, the small one came from it, and had occupants. Those are the perceptions. It traumatised me to the point of eventually being suicidal. It was a slow disintegration of my psyche. I didn't know what life was anymore. Everything I knew was a lie. I thought the govt know about this, they are letting this happen. All of that stuff. I knew nothing. I wasn't a UFO researcher, I was a 27 year old woman with a child who worked in kitchens cooking food. it doesn't matter if i now suspect we have that kind of technology, it doesn't matter if I now concede that could have been terrestrial. I knew none of that then. The second thing I'd hoped for was he would speak out too. Now I think that's the worst thing anyone can do to themselves. After all nobody really cares unless you allow them to sell you for their own profit, I see it happen to people all the time, this isn't exclusive to me. It's not MY whinge, it is just the way it is.

John didn't survive himself, he died maybe six years ago now. I came close, we have all struggled. The one thing that struck me though is that I was the only person who went outside and had that fight or flight moment. Even though John was obviously freaked out, they all seemed to take it in their stride. So it was a total shock to me to find out that everyone had been utterly traumatised and that John was dead. I have seen and spoken to both Danya and Steve, initially I did hope they would want to share their side of events. Steve does, he told me he wanted a polygraph and hypnosis and all of that because he wants to know what happened to us. he wants to know if there is more from when we went to sleep. He wants to prove to the world this really happened. This is what he has said but in reality, I don't think he does because he would have by now. I am not sure that we can have any answers, any closure. Hypnosis is dangerous, how would you cope with other memories if you can't cope with the memories you have? I certainly do not wish to traumatise myself again. I have just about learned how to live in my own skin. As for Danya, i think it would be one of the worst things she could do to herself. To her life. She isn't like me, she isn't a tough old boot, shes really quite refined and gentle, she certainly could the abuse of the Internet or her normal life being turned upside down by this, with possibly people around her thinking she has gone completely mad.

I have stayed in touch with them, but I don't badger them about this, I figure if they have something to say in public, they will say it. But they do support me and they can see the way I have been treated. why would they want to be treated this way? If anyone was truly interested in these things and there was respect in the community, there would have been a four witness account available of a situation with two UFOs where one of them actually landed. As it stands, it isn't worth the risk to their personal health and well being. They can see that people try to bully me over me not being professional, when why should i be? Just because I speak in public? Are they to be professionals too to come forward? Professional UFO researchers? Professional speakers? Witnesses aren't good enough these days unless they are all polished and ready to speak at a conference and do the radio circuit. There are no professional counsellors for these people, they are thrown to the lions. The UFO community tells me by it's behaviour, it wants persona's not real people. If I was a polished persona then I'd be part of a clique I really don't care for. Well I am who I am and I am what I am and as far as I am concerned the only thing that matters is the event and the data that can be gleaned from the event.

That doesn't seem to matter anymore but I also am castigated for even mentioning it. Being observational is playing the victim apparently. Pointing out my experience of the UFO community which is the exact same as everyone elses, BAD, means I am playing some sort of victim mentality. Well if I was ever a victim of anything it was that night in February 1997 on a mountain in Wales, we were all victims. Victims of either humans playing with secret technology who did all of that to us on purpose, or it really was something from somewhere else with extreme foreigners at the controls. Now it seems to me more likely it was terrestrial than Extra Terrestrial, but on that day, in that moment, our whole worlds came crashing down on us. We had to rebuild ourselves with what was left of us. We have no lid anymore, no sense of surety in anything. No sense of safety or security, absolutely no safety net at all anywhere, the sky fell in on us. It makes you question everything, including your own sanity every single day. That's what something like that does to you, then you try and tell people about it..... Well you all know how that works out for everyone.

So there you have it. This is my account of the events of that weekend. Whether you will ever see anything from Steve or Danya, I don't know. I really don't recommend that people speak in public anymore, not knowing the way we are all treated. There is so much damage caused by the community to peoples who's only crime is to have seen something they never asked to see, never wanted to see and in some instances wish they had never seen. Sometimes I wish I'd never seen it, sometimes I am glad I have. The one thing I do wish is that the technology for recreating memories into images becomes available before I die then you can all see it too. Until then, if ever,I am grateful to the friends I have made and the friends who stayed with me and believed me and didn't think I had just 'gone mad' for the fun of it. The one thing that does help is having other people around who you can talk to, it brings a kind of normalcy to it, that is a definite comfort!

So keep your eyes peeled but don't be surprised if nobody is interested in what you have seen, they're mostly too busy yakking about what they think about everything. Generally everyone else knows better than the witness and the only person who is ever wrong is the person who had the sighting!

C'est la vie!