Journey to the Beginning of Time (Cesta do pravěku)

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!