Have you ever thought of taking a kayak tour to see the Congress Ave bats? This is exactly what we did… take a kayak tour on Lady Bird Lake!
We met up with Casey, our Live Love Paddle tour guide, at Joe’s Crab Shack on Riverside Drive. After a little review on how to kayak properly, he sent us off and told us he’d meet us at the bridge.
My daughter and I (who had never kayaked before) had so much fun, and we stopped to take pictures lots of times.
Casey zipped up behind us in his kayak and as we sat and enjoyed the beautiful sunset reflecting on the Austin downtown skyline, he told us all about the bats.
Then at dusk we watched over a million bats come out from under the bridge in these tubes that were like swarms of locusts! So cool!
It was our favorite thing that we did in Austin!
A couple of nights later, we watched them from the bridge and it didn’t even compare to watching them from below in a kayak!
So I would highly recommend… If you want to see something different, take a kayak tour to see the Congress Ave bats!
Thanks so much for telling us about this different way to see the bats. It sounds really cool, and I’m thinking that you probably saw the bats from an angle that few others get to experience.
Generally speaking, I think that going to see the bats is such a unique experience that you’re not likely to easily find anywhere else. And to think that these little creatures eat thousands of pounds of insects each night, is just mind-blowing!
The next time we go to downtown Austin in the summer, I think we will also go kayaking to see the bats. I’m sure my kids will enjoy that a lot!
PS. Thank you also for the great photos of your bats experience! They make it look like so much fun!