During the Easter Holidays in 2002, my wife and I made one of our frequent trips to our beloved France: our mission (as always!) was to enjoy a few good meals and select a couple of hundred bottles of wine for the cellar........

As we drove back from the ancient port of Boulogne along the coastal trunk road, I suddenly spotted a bright light in the Northern part of the sky.....

Drawing my wife's attention to this strange phenomenon, I slowed down our car for a better view of the object....

The stranger slowly glided across the fields at a height of perhaps fifty metres, actually hovering over the road for several minutes. In shape, colour and texture, the UFO resembled an unfluted dustbin lid: it was about the size of a C130 transport aircraft. After a short while, the strange craft accelerated rapidly away to the South, soon disappearing behind some low hills.

A VERY close encounter of the first kind!

Reading through some of the new contributions, I suddenly recalled a singular experience of my own that took place in Derbyshire many years ago.

At the time I spent as many weekends as I could walking and climbing in the rugged hills  of the Peak District with two friends ,fellow-teachers Jerry and Robin. Between us we ran the 'Outdoor Activities' group at a large High School just outside Norwich.

One winter, we decided to take a small group of tough but amusing youngsters (who we all taught for various subjects) on a 'snow camp'
which was in reality a winter hike and survival weekend in the Peak District. I will not bore you with the minutiae of the expedition: suffice it to say that the young people learned much about real life while ploughing through waist-deep snow ten miles from food and shelter!

On the occasion about which I wish to tell you, we had spent a gruelling day climbing up and crossing a high plateau called K*nder Scout. This was February, and the high tops were a metre deep in fine snow: here and there deep gullies posed extra problems for the unwary. As may be imagined, after seven hours away from our campsite, the boys were somewhat exhausted and chastened!

We decided to build a fire, around which we could sit and enjoy a hot meal before retiring to our snow-heaped tents. The night was bright and star-lit, and held the promise of an intense frost….

One of the boys, knowing of my interest in Astronomy, invited me to name the brighter stars: this I began to do, feeling quite flattered by the apparent interest of the group. I had, I recall, just finished naming the seven components of the familiar constellation of Orion, when an eighth and ninth slid in from the West to join them! Even the non-scientifically minded Robin sat up and took notice! The two new 'stars' were about as bright as Rigel: that is to say extremely bright and blue-white in colour!

As we watched open-mouthed, a further five 'stars' moved in from the West to formate with the original pair.
Then began an incredible light-show, as these strange visitors  moved about the sky to form a variety of geometrical shapes: triangles, pentagons, squares….. and even the unmistakable configuration of Ursa Major, the Plough!

After  about an hour the display abruptly ended as the lights scattered to the four corners of the sky. What was there to say or do?  We retired to our tents in silence to reflect upon what we had witnessed.

Well that is the tale...perhaps not as impressive as some, but the feature that struck me then - and now -  is that the strange lights were obviously intelligently controlled. I have never since questioned the existence of other life-forms in the Universe...how could I?