Dax Shepard moment: “Hey pal. I just remembered I didn’t tell you what I did in Australia…”.

Quote: “Hey pal. I just remembered I didn’t tell you what I did in Australia. The one cool thing I did was jog through the botanical gardens behind the opera house. There’s a group of trees in the that attract thousands of huge bats and you can see them all sleeping out in the open during the day.”

Destination: Botanical Gardens behind the Opera House, Sydney

Inspiration: Dax Shepard sends me jogging to find bats!

Actualization: Mission Dax Bats started at the Opera House which was a whole challenge in itself. I actually ran around the gardens last week but definitely not through them and I’m not sure if I had I would’ve thought to look up to see the bats. When we got to the Opera House the area was being overtaken by Australian Idol (P.S. dying to have someone send me on that moment).

After running the stairs and showing Dax’s email to a few Aussies, I was sent off towards Palm’s Place in the middle of the gardens. Ironic because Dax and I first met when he came on a jet trip I coordinated to the Maloof’s Palm’s Place in Las Vegas. As we ran, I kept thinking to myself, I hope I actually can find a bat or two…and then we heard them more than one or two, and turned the corner to find hundreds of them. Each one hanging by barely a stick of a leg and wrapped in what looked like Duct Tape. It felt like a bat park. After seeing the first tree FULL of them it was like a never ending path of trees and every once in a while a bat would open up its duct tape wings and re-wrap itself.

I couldn’t go under the trees without covering my head. I kept looking at Janae saying, “get outta there before one loses a stick leg and the duct tape covers your face.” Obviously in my head I knew it wouldn’t happen but I swear if you go and look up at these guys you’ll be ducking away from those duct tape bats too. I asked Janae, “where do they go at night? To protect the streets of Gotham Sydney?” Later Janae told me her hairdresser explained it as a weaving effect…like leapfrogs in the sky, all at once the thousands of bats fly over the city at twilight every night. A group of them flew around us as we exited the park. I felt it was my send off and to prove themselves….those bats were not robins. Gotham Sydney doesn’t like the bat, man. They feel overpopulated and are putting into effect a petition to relocate the bats using noise to wake them up and get them out. So go see em’ soon.

Realization:  This moment gave me the hibijeebees and I can’t say it was fun, but it was a favorite because now I know more about a bat…and not just a Christian Bale/Michael Keaton one.