Bat Tales: True Stories of Adventure, Nature, Wildlife and Life, (Paperback)

<p>Mark Batmale is a lifelong adventurer with a sense of humor and a gentle spirit. In his true stories he introduces a host of memorable characters, ranging from the genteel to the hardcore. Batmale masterfully weaves tales of excitement, wonder, humor, heart and triumph.</p> <p><em>Bat</em> <em>Tales</em> will bring you to the edge of an erupting volcano in Guatemala, with red-hot rocks whizzing by; to Switzerland where one step too many triggers an avalanche and to an old bridge where a kayaker is willingly thrown off. There's also a trip to Lava Falls in the Grand Canyon for a ridiculous stunt and to Colorado for a quirky triathlon that descends 9,000 vertical feet.</p> <p>The reader will meet a pair of six-year-old girls, one holding a pink butterfly net and the other sitting on a pink Barbie bike. There's a paraglider pilot who disappears in the Alps and a skier who makes a gut-wrenching descending of an ever steepening couloir, with no idea where it is leading. We meet a long distance backpacker with a lonely heart on his seventeenth 1000-mile walk, an exuberant slang-slinging Aussie, and a scantily clad huntress hassling a porcupine in the Yukon.</p> <p>The author's compassion for wildlife is portrayed in his encounters with a tragic pair of mated golden eagles, a bear slurping chocolate milk who becomes seriously irritated when interrupted, and two rattlesnakes, one resting but the other startled and agitated. There is an owl and a skunk in grave predicaments along with a gray jay dangling from a fishing line.</p> <p>A short campfire "sermon" by a wacky "preacher" which might spark the reader's curiosity about the universe, and a boneheaded incident with a porcupine that may have the reader wonder about karma.</p> <p>Batmale regales us an account of the most dramatic meteor shower in half a century. He also shares stories of rescues. Some are simple but in one the author lives up to his childhood nickname, Batman.</p> <p>One doesn't need to be an adrenaline junkie or outdoor enthusiast to enjoy this collection. The stories have a life component that many people can relate to. <em>Bat</em> <em>Tales</em> is written with a sense of humor and the author freely shares a few of his mistakes and mishaps.</p>

• Bat Tales: True Stories of Adventure, Nature, Wildlife and Life, (Paperback)
• Author: Mark Batmale
• ISBN: 9780997599718
• Format: Paperback
• Publication Date: 2016-08-28
• Page Count: 254