As we have already mentioned, Bellingen is home to a large fruit bat/ flying fox colony that can be seen at dawn and dusk flying around. We could see the island where the bats live from the hostel and on speaking with the hostel staff discovered that you could walk around onto the bat island on the Bellinger river during the day and see them all flying around, arguing and sleeping.
We decided to check it out. About 20 seconds walk from the main road you can hear and see them. There were thousands of them. They were all sitting in the tree or flying around. The noise was very loud and it was amazing to hear them all chatting. They were very close above our heads and some of them would watch you as you walked along.
Flying Foxes
We spent about 2 hours on the island before deciding that the bats may of had enough of us. The educational boards next the road informed us that flying foxes and fruit bats are the same things and that there were three different types of bat on the island (red headed, black headed and one we can’t remember!). All three types of bat co-exisist happily on the island as there is enough food in the area. Each type lives at different heights in the trees, so they don’t compete for space too much.
The other thing that was unmistakably batty about the island was the smell! The ground was covered in bat poop and was very stinky, another reason we only stayed 2 hours.
Every night we were in Bellingen we watched the bats at dusk leave the island and fly over the river in search of food. Apparently they fly up to 30 miles away to eat. The sheer numbers of them was astounding. The sky would go darker and there were bats everywhere you looked. It was brilliant.
