Fruit Bats at the Sydney Botanical Gardens

Andy suggested that we try to visit the Botanical Gardens just before dusk so that we could see all the Fruit Bats hanging from the trees there. As we were wandering around we spotted several different kinds of birds - colorful lorakeets, huge white cockatus and a few curlews. We saw a group of tourists clustered beneath a tree in the distance. As we got closer we realized that the tree was covered in bats. They were all sleeping upside down. We watched them for a while and soon noticed that all of the trees in the area were hosting sleeping bats. We stayed hoping that we could see them all wake up and take off into the night. Unfortunately, we had tickets to see La Boheme at the Sydney Opera House so we couldn't wait very long. We managed to see a few

wake up, change positions and squabble with each other. We saw one or two take flight. It was fascinating to see so many large bats. They seemed much bigger than the few I have seen in California. Their faces were actually kind of cute. They almost looked like winged foxes.

Afterward, we dashed over to the Opera House to meet Andy for an evening performance of La Boheme. It was excellent! We had the nosebleed seats with obstructions, but we felt fortunate just to be able to attend. It was a modern day adaptation set in some students digs. The costumes were modern as well. One of the Bohemians had dread locks and another had an earring, black leather jacket and tatoos. The singing was fantastic and the acoustics were incredible. When the scene took place in the far left-hand side of the stage I couldn't see what was happening, but fortunately most of the action occurred in the middle of the stage and part of the stage even lifted up so that everyone could see when they were on the second floor of the apartment complex or they were changing scenery below. We all really enjoyed it - even Stephen :-)