Location: South Austin
Rating: FAIL!
If you click the link above there will be a nice little video explaining that the Congress Bridge is home to 1.5 million Mexican free tail bats, the largest urban bat colony in North America. According to the legend, these 1.5 million bats take flight every night at dusk to eat their evening meal. Sounds cool, right? We thought so too. So we braved the 103 degree weather and ventured downtown to explore and planned to end our evening with the bats.
Unfortunately, the 1.5 million bats were MIA. How do 1.5 million bats just disappear? Or escape unnoticed? Andy and I have theorized that this is a joke for Austinites to play on tourists because we sat on a bench within view of the bridge for about an hour until it was close to dusk. Then we climbed to the top of a nearby bridge to watch the action. We waited, and waited, and waited. No bats. After an hour, when it was pitch dark, we decided to call it a night.
If it is, indeed, a joke then these Austinites go to great lengths to fool their tourists. There are bat stickers everywhere, several websites, and even bat cruises along the lake. As you walk along the path, and under the bridge, it even smells like a large colony of rhodent like creatures lives there. Yeah, I know, gross.
We did take some pictures of the skyline of our new home town. None of us though we were hot and sweaty (perhaps a bit cranky? no...not me!) and not in the mood for pictures.
See any bats? Me either. Lame.
That's funny that you mentioned the bats. My cousin was just telling me a couple of days ago that he and his girlfriend were in Austin and saw the bats. So they are real. Maybe they were just tired that night and not hungry. Ha ha. When we come to visit, y'all will have to take us there. Hopefully the bats will fly then.
ReplyDelete