THE HAIRY GIRAFFE… IN CANADA
After two weeks in Alberta, it’s time to reflect. How did we experience this journey? What were our joys, disappointments, questions, doubts, and discoveries? This is not merely an assessment of a country but rather of a trip—how we perceived it individually and subjectively.
 We are François and Benjamin, Canadian and French giraffe hairstylists and travel enthusiasts. On this blog, discover our travels, tips, moods, and everything you need to become a giraffe hairstylist and embark on travelling the world. An honest blog with photos guaranteed 100% unfiltered and untouched. |
Benjamin’s Travel Reflections
We were supposed to admire lakes with incredible colors, drive along one of the most beautiful roads in the world, and marvel at snow-capped peaks. That’s what we were preparing to do during this two-week trip to Alberta in western Canada. But almost nothing went as planned.
During our stay, hundreds of fires ravaged several tens of square kilometers of forests in British Columbia, creating gigantic clouds of smoke that covered the sky from Canada to Montreal. Instead of admiring exceptional natural sites, we experienced the impact of an ecological disaster.
Forest fires now devastate large swathes of Canadian, Californian, European, or Australian forests every year. Despite the distance separating us from the fires (several hundred kilometers), the sky everywhere took on apocalyptic orange hues, pollution levels peaked, rendering many outdoor activities impossible, and temperatures dropped.
So, we had to revise our itinerary in the middle of the trip. It was the first time we had to reconsider such a large part of a journey. In the initial days, we hoped the situation would improve. Then, we realized we needed to adapt.
Where could we go? Towards the East? The North? The United States? We reread our guide, looked at the map of Canada many times, calculated potential travel times… No place as renowned as the Rockies was around us. We had to come to terms with it: the trip wouldn’t live up to our expectations.
And yet. Yet, even though we’re disappointed not to have been able to admire the treasures of Banff and Jasper, we had an excellent journey. We hoped to see incredible landscapes; we experienced a road trip in complete freedom. Driving. Every day. And farther North.
Toward lands I had never heard of, places whose culture and history were entirely unknown to me. A road trip along the route of Franco-Canadian fur trappers and former fur trading posts, amidst the Prairies and one of the world’s largest reserves of crude oil, discovering the cultures of First Nations. A road trip along a route that isn’t touristy.
I felt a real sense of freedom during this journey. Modifying the itinerary midway removed all expectations, allowing me to fully embrace what we were experiencing and discovering. Each visit had its own charm. And I discovered interesting places that didn’t feature on any blog, weren’t buzzing on Instagram, and weren’t breaking any records on TripAdvisor.
This trip was also a true shared road trip for the two of us. The two of us set off on lesser-traveled roads without knowing exactly what we would discover. The last-minute changes brought us closer together. The sense of freedom linked to the road trip, Canada’s level of modernity, and the near absence of tourists provided us with real comfort and a feeling of traveling in a cocoon, just the two of us, away from the rest of the world.
And then, of course, there was also the first part of the journey. A few days following the traces of dinosaurs. When one thinks of Canada, they think of Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. They also think of the Rockies and Niagara Falls. But the Dinosaur Provincial Park will remain a huge favorite for me.
Firstly, the landscape is magnificent. It’s a badlands landscape, composed of rock formations reminiscent of a lunar environment. Secondly, unlike other badlands around the world, Dinosaur Provincial Park is abundant in countless dinosaur tracks.
As a child, I dreamed of becoming a paleontologist. Ever since my parents took me to see Jurassic Park at the cinema, I developed a real passion for the film. I collected figurines, cards, and books. And I dreamed of one day seeing real dinosaurs…
Since then, my career choice has changed a lot, but my interest in dinosaurs has never entirely left me. When I learned that Dinosaur Provincial Park offered the opportunity to accompany a paleontologist for a few days at a dig site, I jumped at the chance.
And I did the right thing! What an incredible experience! We uncovered dinosaur bones buried there for 77 million years! (For more information about our experience at Dinosaur Provincial Park, check out our 2-week itinerary in Alberta.) I had the Jurassic Park theme music in my head every day…
I prepared for the trip by reading some books about dinosaurs. And visiting the Royal Tyrrell Museum completed this extraordinary experience. A museum of exceptional quality.
It’s not every day that one fulfills a childhood dream. That you get the chance to live the life you hoped for when you were little. Even if it’s for a few days. Or a few hours. It’s not every day that you can become your childhood idol. When I was 10 years old, I dreamed of being Alan Grant. Many years later, for three days, I was Alan Grant. I wasn’t playing at being Alan Grant. I wasn’t pretending to participate in paleontological digs. I lived the experience I dreamed of, participating in real excavations and uncovering, for the first time, bones dating back 77 million years.
As for seeing real live dinosaurs, being chased in a jeep by a T-Rex, and escaping the claws of velociraptors, I’ll wait for a crazy billionaire to create his animal park… But the child in me marveled for three days in the midst of Alberta’s badlands.
Between the dinosaurs, the former fur trading posts, and the discovery of the history of the First Nations, Alberta offered us much more than the magnificent landscapes we had come to see. More than a journey through space, a true journey through time.
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