Day 19. Royal Tyrell Museum. 6th May 2015
We had been anticipating today’s visit to the Royal Tyrell Museum ever since we had started planning the Canada adventure -in fact it was the reason for coming to Drumheller.
We first heard about the Tyrell when Mel listened to an audio book “Extreme Frontiers” Written by Charley Boorman. We had listened together as we drove to see the ‘Boss’ at Hanging Rock.
Of course anticipation can provide cruel letdowns. Not the Tyrell. It went above and beyond in our expectations. Amazing exhibitions of creatures based mainly on actual skeletons that had been restored. Windows looking into the areas where technicians were working on huge hunks of stone to retrieve the fossils.
As we made our way through the exhibits – which were arranged in chronological order according to geological time periods – we could not help but think how insignificant humans are in terms of time spent on planet Earth.
The other thoughts were just how amazing these creatures were especially with regards to their anatomical engineering.
All of this with the thought in the the back of our minds -is all this money and effort to produce this knowledge worth it?
No matter how we might answer that question the fact is that again the Canadians showed their prowess in presenting information in well maintained and pleasant surroundings.
Also they don’t take themselves too seriously as evidenced by the various videos presented by a guy as eccentric as our own Dr Carl.
Unfortunately we did not record his name and cannot find a reference online but he was a great educator, with humour, and a great deal of sending self up.
When I commented to the young woman in the mandatory shop at the exit that I thought museums in Canada were exceptional she replied
“It is because we are fond of our land”.
An example of the nice unassuming pride in their country that Canadians seems to specialise in.
We spent the whole day at the Tyrell with a short break for lunch and at no time did we feel bored or inclined to leave early.That is the great thing about being “on the road” you only have to do things you want to.
Surrounding the museum is an interpretative walk that described the geology of the landscape known as the “Badlands”. This is an historical description based around the lack of water and arable land.
The description had caught Mel’s imagination and she was eager to see them first hand. So yet again Bruce Springsteen impacted on our day because she hummed his song aptly named you guessed it …
-Badlands-
as we commenced our walk.
As we strolled through in what was now a freezing gale-Mel’s excitement reached fever pitch as she kept repeating “I am now in the Badlands I can’t believe it”.
The walk was a good introduction to a landscape that by the week’s end we had became used to.
As our journey progressed we saw much more exciting examples of Hoodoo’s,sedimentary layers and eroded hillsides and canyons.
Still up for a challenge we went to a recommended spot called Horse Thief Canyon. With the the intention of hiking into it.
Once there with very little evidence of maintained trails and a steep descent that is typical of canyons we decided against it.
I look at this photo and think it was a good decision 🙂
Now hungry we opted to head back to town and had a very successful dinner at the Athens Family Restaurant – good Greek home cooking.
Mel was relieved at having decent fresh food of a reasonable size.
The mother of the restaurant was a real character and regaled the whole restaurant with stories of her recent trip to Greece.
Obviously pleased and relieved that she had returned to Drumheller she spoke of cops who wouldn’t arrest criminals and of family events where shooting into the air was an acceptable ritual.
