JOURNEY TO THE BEGINNING OF TIME
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Our logbook. The diary of our journey.
My friends and I, we just had the best adventure ever!
We went on a voyage of discovery - back into prehistory.
Like other boys playing cowboys and indians.
There were four of us.
That's me, Petr, holding the book.
In the middle is Jirka, the youngest in our team.
Beside him is Jenda.
Toník isn't there. He took the photo. But you can see his shadow.
He was our photographer.
Here, by the cave, where that cross is, that's where Jirka found this.
That's what started it all.
This is not any old stone. It is a fossilised trilobite.
Jirka didn't know that trilobites had died out long ago,
so he wanted to see a live one.
He didn't know this was once a seabed covered by an ocean full of trilobites.
It's only thanks to their fossils that we even know what they looked like.
So he could imagine it better, we showed him on this chart
how there were 500 million years between us and this trilobite.
And if he wanted to see a real one,
he'd have to go back into the past,
right down these giant steps:
past the Ice Age,
through the Tertiary,
down to the Mesozoic
and the Paleozoic,
and all the way back to the Silurian seas and the trilobites!
So he could understand it better, we took him to the museum.
He looked at more fossils, a lot rarer and a lot bigger.
Toník even took a picture of him with a mammoth.
Jirka loved it,
but was sad he would never see one alive.
If there were only mammoths like that out in the woods!
Dead bones and artists' impressions just aren't the same.
What Jirka really wanted was to see them move!
So when he read the Jules Verne book
about people going to the centre of the Earth
and seeing 'antediluvian monsters',
he thought we could do the same.
And since almost everything in Jules Verne books came true,
we decided to go.
To sail upriver into that cave,
our magic cave!
That's where our journey began...
Ice...
- Seriously, there's ice here. - Never mind, keep rowing!
We're still moving, aren't we?
Yes, but it'll soon get worse.
Look at all that ice!
That looks really like the Ice Age.
We'll never get past that icepack. Even an icebreaker wouldn't make it!
We have to try.
First put on something warm!
Jirka put this on!
Down over the ears or you'll get frostbite!
Hand me the lamp.
Here we go!
- Careful! - Careful, Jirka!
Don't worry. It can hold us.
Guys, get out and we'll drag the boat over the ice, like a sled.
- Good idea. - Come on guys!
Let's go.
- A bit more. - Everything in the boat!
It will be alright as long as we keep moving!
It won't be easy...
Take some. They've got jam in!
- Thanks, they're super! - Another one?
We must be careful with this, Jirka. It's our expedition logbook.
Let's write something now!
And so we wrote our first entry,
how we made our camp in the Ice Age.
That really was an Ice Age
our faces and fingers were frozen stiff, but that didn't matter.
We were just happy we got this far.
Jirka was the happiest of all,
he got exactly what he had wished for
- an adventurer's trek into the great unknown.
The next day we were back on our way again
on the open river.
There was a lot less ice now,
and the further we got, the more bushes and trees there
were just like back home.
Then the ice disappeared completely.
Guys! Look over there! By the fir trees!
- It's a mammoth! - Really!? - Let's get closer!
A mammoth! A real mammoth, boys!
What a giant!
- Hurry up, let me see! - Me too!
- Quickly! - Wait!
- Let me see! - Quiet, you guys!
He's not paying any attention to us at all!
Hello!
Hello! Hellooo! Hellooo!
Mr Mammoth, are we in the right place in prehistory? Hello!
Sit down!
When we set up camp, we talked only about the mammoth, especially Jirka.
It was much better than the one in the museum.
It was a real live animal.
The first one we'd seen in the prehistoric world.
We set off at first light.
There were some glaciers on the horizon,
but the landscape had changed completely.
Everything was green now and it felt almost like home.
But water from the glaciers was flooding the river,
and we couldn't row against the strong current.
Jenda, look! A path!
- There! - Right there!
Guys, what did you find?
Come and have a look.
Wait, I'll pull you in.
Don't fall! Easy now, hold tight!
It's some kind of a path.
The mammoths must have made it.
- But there are no tracks here. - Maybe animals come here to drink?
Let's see where it leads.
Why not! Come on!
Careful, don't go in! You never know what might be inside.
Look. There's a campfire!
Maybe there's a man living here.
- A prehistoric hunter. - What if he's in?
I don't think so. It's too overgrown now.
- Wait, I've made a torch. - Okay, you go first!
There's nobody here.
Someone was here and he made a fire. And he was a hunter, look!
Now that's cool!
And heavy.
- What is it anyway? - What do you think Petr?
They must be antlers from a giant stag.
I'd like to have seen that one! He must have been amazing!
And strong, carrying two hundred pounds on his head!
What's over here, guys?
Fellas, it won't budge.
- How about this one? - Let me see.
Wow, that is a bone! Must be a mammoth's tusk.
Yes, but only about a third of it. Think about it guys!
- Let's take it with us. - Sure, and who's going to carry it?
Here's another find, Petr.
That's the caveman's axe.
He attacks mammoths with this? He must be a hell of a fighter.
A brutal savage...
Just as well he's not home right now.
Guys, what if he comes back...?
I don't know, but I think there's a tunnel back there.
We'd better check. Just in case...
Careful, Jenda!
Petr!
Animal paintings!
Bison.
That was our biggest surprise of all in this cave,
those animal paintings.
That hunter had etched his thoughts and feelings right there on the rock.
He hunted deer and bison,
but he could also paint them,
like a master.
We'd all seen the mammoth by the river,
but none of us could have drawn it like he did.
The caveman stopped being just a butcher of animals for us.
We no longer feared him.
He was a human being, just like us.
Petr, you sure we can't take anything?
No, Jirka. How do you think we'd carry that?
- Toník was right. - Pity.
Toník's gone outside already! Come on, let's go after him.
We have to move on.
Toník, where are you going?
- Don't worry, I'll be right back! - Hurry up! We're heading to the river!
I'll just get a few more pictures!
Toník!
- Toník! - We called in vain.
Toník wouldn't let go of the caveman's trail.
He wanted to find him and get a picture.
It would be the first photo ever of a live caveman.
He imagined what a sensation it would be,
so he went further and further into the woods,
deeper into the unknown forest.
- Can you see him? - No.
- Look harder! - I can't see him anywhere.
So get down, and we'll have to go look for him.
Something must have happened to him.
Look! Do you see that?
Look, over there!
Petr, do you know what they are?
Woolly rhinos, I think.
Definitely! Woolly rhinos!
So the fight is over.
Jirka, let's go! We have to find Toník.
We're wasting time.
Guys, it's swimming towards us!
Jirka, what's wrong with you?
Shush! There, on the ridge! He's coming this way!
Who's coming?
The caveman, with a spear. Look! Behind the bushes!
- Toník! - Look at you!
Guys! You have no idea what I've just been through!
I've been looking all over for you lot!
Guys, make some space.
Stand there with the spear, Toník, like a hunter.
- This will be some picture! - Get away, I'm taking the photo.
Look this way. Smile!
All done!
Tonik finally dried out by the fire.
And I dutifully put everything in the log.
We wondered what would come next.
Most of our journey into the past still lay ahead of us.
Millions and millions of years before the time of mammoths
lay the Tertiary,
our next stop.
This is great!
- Welcome to the Tertiary! - Hooray!
Sweaters off or we'll burn up. Just like summer back home.
Jirka, do you see that? Flamingos.
Look, over there on the other side!
This was an animal paradise.
Like you'd imagine in Africa. There were gazelles, antelopes,
giraffes and elephants.
Only this was not our elephant.
This one was different a Tertiary-era elephant.
Deinotherium - with tusks growing from its lower jaw,
not like ours whose tusks grow from the top down.
Then there was this predator, also with tusks,
teeth actually sharp as a sabre.
On the hunt, it would kill on sight.
It was one of the most fearful beasts of the whole Tertiary.
Jirka wished we had a rifle, but it was good we didn't.
We were on a scientific mission, not a safari.
We just had to let nature be,
and observe.
Jirka!
Where is the kid gone again?
You just can't watch him!
Better go look after him.
- I'll go this way and you go there. - OK.
Jirka!
- Jirka! - Hear that?
It's Petr. He can't find him either
Come on.
- Jirka! - Jirka!
Jirka!
Guys!
What were you thinking? Can't you hear?
Never mind that... just give me a hand here!
Wow!
What a catch!
You did it!
- Must be ten kilos at least! - He looks tasty!
We'll have a feast tonight!
When we all got back to the boat
and saw how proud Jirka was,
we couldn't stay mad at him.
It was a fine catch after all!
So we named that Whale Bay
in Jirka's honour.
We gave all the mountains and bays names,
like all serious explorers do.
We used them for the maps in our logbook.
That's Thunder Mountain,
because we got caught there in a dreadful storm.
It was wild!
We decided to stay the night on the boat.
We couldn't light a fire in the rain
and were afraid to camp out without one.
First watch fell to me.
The rain finally stopped,
and it was a calm tropical night.
I was thinking about everything we'd seen so far,
and then about home.
- What was that? - Nothing, Jirka.
Just the lamp.
Nothing but a small flame,
but it helped us so much.
As long as we had it, we felt safe.
What must it have been like
when Man lit the first torch,
when he discovered the secret of fire!
Since then, he's become the master of all creation.
Man as we know him.
Give them here!
Boy, the water's cold today!
Jirka!
Get the fire! Quickly!
Take that!
Swim to the boat!
Row! Let's get out of here!
The rest of our ride
was like a trip through a wonderful zoo in the Tertiary.
There were different animals
everywhere we looked, too many to name.
What a monster! Never seen anything that ugly before!
It has an even weirder name. Uintatherium.
- What? - Uintatherium.
- Uintataterium! - Did you make that up?
- What a tongue twister! - Stop laughing you lot!
It's scientifically correct. It's not a joke.
Science needs names, so they have to make them up,
for things like that.
They always use Latin or Greek,
so they can be understood all around the world.
Made-up names sound okay in science, better than in ordinary language
I mean, it wouldn't sound good if it was called 'bumpyhead'
or 'bubblenose', or whatever.
'Uintatherium' sounds a lot better.
Jirka, time to get up, it's morning!
- Let's go. - Petr, hurry up!
Let's move it!
Phorusrhacos. Look!
See?
In the past whenever people
found parts of these animals, like a talon,
they figured it was from some flying demon.
So we have all these legends about places with dragons and basilisks,
and how strong and powerful they are.
We were about to enterjust such a world of dragons.
Not the legendary ones, the real ones, in the flesh.
As soon as we entered the Mesozoic
Jirka was on the lookout for 'monsters'.
So far, all we'd seen were bare rocks.
Nothing but stones and sand.
No, there's no sign of any dinosaurs.
- What about over there? Look! - Where?
That's a dinosaur? That thing?
That's just a turtle,
a perfectly ordinary turtle!
OK, Jirka, see up there?
There's your dragons, flying beauties!
It's like an airshow!
Yep With prehistoric aircraft called Pteranodons.
They put on quite a show!
Guys, watch out! I think it's coming down!
Duck!
Jirka!
Watch out!
Hold on! We'll go to the bank!
They're flying away!
I hope they don't come back!
Must have wanted to see what we were doing here.
We panicked for nothing. It says here they feed exclusively on live fish!
On live fish?
That's only because they had no people to eat back then!
You saw how wide its beak was!
Big bully!
Up to the shore, Jirka.
They'll leave us alone now, you'll see.
If only.
I'm soaked through!
Better come ashore, guys. It's Jirka's turn to dry off.
Hey, guys, look at these trees!
Plants and bushes everywhere!
Over there, it's like a forest!
Almost like trees back home.
Especially those tall ones. Pines, right?
They look like them, but they're called Araucarias.
They're full of resin,
so they should make a great campfire.
And below them, what look like mini palm trees, they're cycads.
Some of them survived all the way
into modern times,
but the animals changed
in all sorts of ways over millions of years.
Jirka! Petr!
What's that?
What do you think it is?
A Styracosaurus!
You'd think, going by the horns on its collar it would be pretty mean,
but in fact it was a dumb giant.
Its skull might be two metres,
but its brain was as small as a cat's.
Some faster reptiles passed us by,
but too quick for us to identify them!
And this lumbering fortress is Stegosaurus.
It looked like a robot animal
built by some mad professor!
The plates on its back protected it from attack. Like a knight in armour!
Bigger than a tank!
And when in danger,
it could use its barbed tail like a mace!
There were lots of weird creatures in the Mesozoic.
We saw another as we passed a rocky shore.
It was like half duck, half kangaroo.
What they called a Trachodon.
Jenda!
Shush!
I drew a picture of it, another one for our log!
But our biggest catch of all, the longest chapter in our log of the Mesozoic,
was for the Brontosaurus,
probably the largest land animal that ever lived.
The first time we saw it, we were scared stiff.
But curiosity overcame our fear.
We decided to get closer.
That mountain of meat didn't really pose much danger,
since it wasn't very smart.
Its brain was so tiny it couldn't control its enormous body,
so the Brontosaurus had a second brain
down by its backside!
It was lucky it could move at all.
Generally they preferred to stay in the water.
It helped support their giant bodies,
weighing in at as much as forty tons!
Go slower Jenda, so we can check him out.
- Don't be afraid. - He's big!
Seems the mountain is turning towards us.
Yep, he's turning around to face us!
Maybe we should turn around too, just in case.
Alright, to the left.
- Guys, guys! Wait! - What?
- I've got to get a picture of it. - Oh that's great!
I can't go without one.
I totally forgot.
Hold on, keep still!
Thanks, we're done!
Look! He's noticed us!
- Seriously, he's coming towards us. - I think we should go now!
Good idea!
"Studying the remains of extinct creatures,
"palaeontologists are able to..."
There's something moving over there. It's like a walking rock or something.
It's a... Stegosaurus!
Pity it's so dark. I can hardly see.
There! There's another one!
It just appeared!
As soon as it was day, we crossed the river
to look at the Stegosaurus.
It had to be dead.
It had been lying in the same place since the day before.
This was our one chance to see a dinosaur up close,
to touch it.
Maybe he's just asleep.
No way, he's dead. Let's get closer!
Yeah, he's a goner.
Told you so. He's well out of it.
Close up like this, you can see just how big it is.
Big as a tank.
Hello!
Lucky he's dead! We can get a really good look at him.
It's not lucky. It's a shame! He could have been our pet.
Now there's a bright idea!
I'd like to see you tame a thing that big!
- Like Androcles and the lion! - Yeah, sure!
I'd heal his wounds, that's how!
You know, like Androcles helping the wounded lion and the lion followed him.
Everyone would be so jealous if I brought him home.
That would be amazing!
But there's something more important at stake here, Jirka
We didn't set out just to get famous or even have an adventure.
We really wanted to know what life was like in prehistoric times.
That was our goal. We're so lucky to see all this
with our own eyes.
That's why we're here.
We should take this chance write it all down draw, it and measure it.
I'll take photos of him from every side, Petr.
- Any details you want? - Start over here with the head,
just back up a bit and get down lower.
That's fine.
While you do that, I'll measure him and make a drawing.
I left the log in the boat. Jirka, would you go and get it for me?
- Me again? Do I have to? - We'll just get things ready.
- Go on! - Alright!
- Anything for science... - Good man!
Now do the other side and again just the head.
Petr, I've got a small notepad if you want it.
Thanks Jenda, that'll do for now.
Let's measure it by paces. Start right by the head.
One, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight, nine.
Nine paces, Petr, to right here.
Nine steps, that's about eight metres.
- Now let's do the plate. - Maybe by hand.
One, two, three,
four, five, six.
That makes about sixty centimetres.
And now the width. One, two, three,
four, five, six.
The same, write it down.
Height... and width sixty, right?
Guys!
It's Jirka!
Something must have happened.
What happened?
A dinosaur smashed it.
From the size of the tracks
it must have been huge.
Did you see it?
No, I didn't.
- It was already like this when I came. - This is the end.
We'll never fix this. It's totally wrecked.
The gear's okay.
The diary! The logbook, guys! It's here! Untouched.
- At least we have that! - But we can't go on.
Don't cry, Jirka, this is nothing. We'll just build a raft.
There's no shortage of trees and we can keep going!
Right! We'll make it to the end.
Don't worry, we can do it!
We won't let a little thing like this stop us, Jirka.
We knew from experience that this fog on the river signalled another change.
It was like a curtain,
behind which a new world was waiting to be discovered,
older and stranger than before.
According to the plan this should be the Carboniferous,
a world of endless swamps and ponds.
It was kind of depressing and ominous.
There wasn't a single sound.
It was like nature had been cursed.
Petr, come here!
See, I think I know those trees!
- Which ones? - There on the shore.
The ones by the water.
See?
They're horsetails, right?
Down there by the water, those are horsetails,
but see those next to them? They're giant moss plants, Lycopodia.
One day, instead of these weird trees,
there'll be a mining rig standing right here.
This is where coal comes from, forming right now below our feet.
Men will come here to mine it one day.
But that's still millennia in the future.
Wait, I'll get rid of it.
There is a lot of this stuff!
Toník!
Wait, I'm coming.
Guys, that's not going to budge.
We won't be able to sail any further.
What did you expect?
- There's just no way through here. - Okay, so now what?
We'll walk. We'll just take everything with us.
That's all.
Don't leave anything behind, guys.
We'll need everything for the rest of the trip.
Especially the logbook. Be extra careful with that!
Jirka!
- Jirka come here! - Quiet! - Carry something.
Quiet!
Do you hear? It's a cricket!
Somewhere over there.
Uh, any excuse.
Typical of him.
What could it be anyway?
Yeah, you know him. He's always finding something.
Guys, I just found a carboniferous creature!
Show us!
Well, I'm no scientist, but that certainly wasn't chirping.
It's a centipede, you crickethead!
I know that, but I'll find it. It's here, I can still hear it.
Don't go too far! The swamp's dangerous. Don't get sucked in!
Jirka!
- Hello! Jirka! - Come back!
- Jirka! - Jirka!
The logbook, our logbook!
Get! Get!
Go on! Get away!
Go! Go! I'll teach you!
You monster! Get out of it!
Go on! Wow! Go, go on, go!
- Do you hear that? It's him! - At long last!
It's coming from over there! This way.
Let's go get him, boys!
Before he gets lost in the swamp!
It's okay, he heard us!
Guys, this time we mustn't let him get away with it.
- He needs teaching a lesson! - He's certainly earned it.
Hey guys, I'm back. Glad I found you.
The whistling really helped.
You'll never guess what happened! This lizard thing, like a salamander,
I don't know exactly what it was. Petr would know.
Suddenly it stuck its head out at me and...
know what I did?
No, but you're not acting like a member of an expedition.
You're just a boy, and nothing more!
Swamp everywhere and you run off God knows where!
I fought it and drove it away, and it was a terrible lizard!
Must have been! Look at your pants!
What you need is a nappy.
From now on, you follow us!
- You don't believe me! - Enough! Now come on!
I really fought it!
Just get, we have to find a place to camp before the sun goes down.
Jirka take this! Did you hear me? Take it!
Jirka, come here!
See how great we've made it!
We'll sleep dry tonight!
Sir Jirka is not amused.
- What are you looking for? - The logbook. I can't find it!
I packed it myself. It must be here somewhere
You put it in the kitbag, I saw it.
- Look again! - I know,
but it's not there.
Then it must have fallen out along the way.
Or when we climbed over those trees.
What will I do!?
Not much point looking for it
in this swamp.
We don't even know how we got here...
This is bad.
It was the most important thing we had, that log.
Everything we recorded,
it's all gone!
The logbook, that's it!
You're not acting like a member of an expedition.
"You're just a boy, and nothing more!" Isn't that what you said?
Guys, our Jirka.
- Sit here! - So, let me see what it's like here!
This goes in the log!
Don't forget Jirka battling the salamander!
And how he found the logbook! That was something!
Sure was! Jirka's biggest catch so far!
With our logbook back, it was like hope had returned
we nearly didn't finish it.
We crossed the maze of the carboniferous swamp
and there was just one last part of our journey left.
We stood on the shores of Siluria.
The Silurian Age; rocks and boulders,
as if the whole world was turned to stone.
Not a blade of grass,
not a bush, not even a beetle. Just nothing.
Nothing could live here.
The sea!
For the first time in our lives, we saw the sea,
wide and without end.
The scale of it just overwhelmed us. Somewhere out there in the distance,
at a time so far back, no man can even imagine it,
there was the beginning of all creation,
life itself was born!
- So what do you think? Like it? - I like it, a lot.
- Is this water salty? - What?
- Is the water salty? - Try it and see.
Well? Is it the sea?
Too bad it's all so barren, so lifeless.
Look, over there!
Do you see that seaweed? That's alive.
For now, it lives only in water,
but when there are storms some of it will get thrown ashore.
Most will die, but some will survive.
Over time it'll get used to the air and the first plants will grow.
And one of them will turn into great forests!
Millions of years later!
Guys! I found something.
More life! Crustaceans.
There must be plenty more in the sea.
- That's where these come from. - Let's look for more!
Guys, look what I got.
Do you see that?
- Jirka, you know what this is? - No.
- A Trilobite! - Really?
That is trilobite number two.
You found the one before, remember?
Yeah, let me see, what did I do with it?
Here it is!
So Jirka now had two trilobites in his hands.
Lying there side by side and yet so very far away from each other.
Between them lay 500 million years!
That stone was a piece of the history of our Earth.
Jirka finally understood, and that was it,
we'd reached the goal of our expedition, to show him the primeval world.
Neither he nor we will ever forget
what we have seen:
life, always changing, growing,
unstoppable,
like the waves on the seashore!
And so it will go on, never ending,
forever and ever...