29 Comments

    • One of my favourite quirks of the show is how abridged the travel seems.

      Mongolia to Zimbabwe was probably 30 hours of travel (and the Instagramers even mentioned that it was at least a day’s worth of flying) … but the show blips through it in about 3 seconds.

      • I think they said it was 28 hours.

        It was funny how the influencers tried to grab the NT team for the music challenge, in spite of the footy team being first, but cried foul when they chose the footy players.

        In other Amazing Races players have choices of different airlines so that they aren’t always on the same flight. TAR Aushtraya needs to hone this, but otherwise a good episode. My favourites are now the footy guys and the married guys. But I hope footy guys win.

  1. Part of the appeal of “The Amazing Race” is that, even on average seasons, you still get moments where the Footy Boys step out of the scrub to find Victoria Falls right in front of them, and take a few minutes to enjoy the spectacle.

    Speaking of the Footy Boys, it’s not their general pleasant and appreciative attitude, nor their physical fitness, nor their strong respectful friendship, none of those things is their greatest asset. Their greatest ability, on the Race, is their ability to make up for lost time and end the leg in first place. There’s been, like, one episode out of seven where they *haven’t* been in first place (or close enough). Either they can teleport, or they smuggled a GPS onto the Race, but those boys are very good at over-taking the other teams.

    Did the nurses really give an interview that they genuinely believe they’re a strong team? You boys seem pleasant enough, certainly … but really?

    The two gay newlyweds prove to be the best at ploughing straight lines into a field. Go figure.

    Now, was the highlight of the episode the amazing African wildlife, the Victoria Falls, or the Instagramers passive-aggressively eating fruit at each other?

    Anyway, we almost lose the Instagramers (who continue to have a volatile, fiery relationship) but they’re saved by a non-elimination. How the hell did they manage to come last? They reached the Elephant Cafe before the Indigenous couple, why didn’t they bounce out of the car? They knew they were ahead of the other team, so why didn’t they show the slightest amount of urgency? It was an added moment of hilarity when the car door lock didn’t co-operate.

    Tomorrow night, we’re still in Zimbabwe. The clip of that bungee swing? The very first challenge, in the very first episode of TAR ever, featured that bungee swing in Africa (the teams flew there from New York City). People call it a bungee, but it’s actually a free swing out over the gorge, and it’s been described as one of the most terrifying challenges the Race has ever had. I’m looking forward to this.

    • The footage is just beyond description…moments of awe.

      I am no longer surprised that the boys are sweet and appreciative. Tonight we found out who Tyler’s Dad is, so of course he is a quality young man.

      What a pain – the instas finally come last, and it is a non-elim! I had a feeling it might be, because they often happen on legs where the end is for some reason, not a real contest. When they got out of the car, they didn’t know that they couldn’t run (obviously so confident of their ability to outrun anyone). Their sense of indignation is so repellent, and they seem to have no sense of karma at all. It was Ok for them to cheat and lie to several teams at the start, but now they are all sweetness and light, and bemused by the disinclination of anyone else to work with them.

      When the two sets of boys arrived in the first batch, there was a woman stationed about 30 metres away who was the one to tell them that they weren’t allowed to run. The flannel boys had the same problem, they ran to there and then were dismayed to find they weren’t allowed to catch the others, and therefore the finishing position was already decided.

      The question with the swing is – will anyone baulk, or freak out enough to delay them badly?

      The promo shows the instas getting a penalty – possibly for breaking speed limits? Unfortunately, in Tv Promo Land, that means that they don’t lose. I am now at the point where they and the nurses are the only teams I want to lose from the game.

    • I’ve stood on that bridge and looked at the bungee and went “NO WAY NO HOW”. I climbed down the gorge and went white water rafting instead. That was fun – these super toned African blokes are running down the gorge with rafts on their back and I’m cautiously and tentatively climbing down rope ladders and holding onto branches thinking I’d slip and end up in the Zambezi! And the blokes blithely run past me and go back. I totally fail at fitness!

    • I loved how they didn’t bother with the clue, they just got in the car and asked random people they passed if they knew the answer to the clue.

      That was legitimately painful to watch.

      • Gold! and this is the team who GENUINELY said “we’re one of the strongest”. The team who can’t read a compass, do puzzles and could barely come in front of some elderly nuns!

          • haha! oops. It was just a joke exaggerated for comic effect – they are younger than me.

            Kind of funny in related outrage, there was a news item about an elderly couple who victims of home invasion – they were in their 50s.I was horrified!

          • I was in the pool with a couple in their 70’s the other day & they were talking about someone & called them elderly. Then said why am I calling them elderly they are the same age as us.

          • Haha, yes, I think ‘elderly’ is a level of ‘frailness’ too. I was going to say 80+ years, but I intend to be fit and healthy to infinity & beyooooond, so 80 is a bit too young to be elderly 😍😎

    • It seems to me that they have not even been cluey enough to try to make an alliance. They just seem to drift airily from one challenge to another, basically irrelevant to the other teams and often getting some lucky break. They must be able to do the challenges in reasonable time, considering their poor navigation puts them back frequently.

      • They’ve made it over the halfway point, so they must be doing *something* right. You’re right, I think it’s their physical strength that’s carrying them, because it’s not their decision-making nor their navigational skills that’s keeping them around.

        I think they’ve hit the limit of their capabilities, to be honest. The Tiny Siblings and Footy Boys and Indigenous couple and Newlyweds are all far more capable than they are. I wouldn’t expect the Nurses to last much longer.

        Same with the Instagramers, but for the reason that they just don’t seem like very pleasant humans.

  2. It seems like the nurses have made no alliances because they have 1. Been too far back to meet anyone, 2. Because what could they offer?
    I think producers will make sure the most TV popular team wins.

  3. I found out where the nurses work in Sydney. Luckily its not in my area. I won’t be going there. They are also personal trainers. I hope they know what they are doing.

  4. Arrrrrggggg just as a team you want to go is last it’s a non elimination leg. I thought to myself when they were coming last it will be a non elimination leg. And that team that slept in then came first. That elephant cafe looked so great. I want to go there.

  5. You know, even for all the money in the world? I’m not sure I could do that gorge swing thing.

    Interesting that most of the teams seemed to have had the best day of their lives … although the brother half of the Tiny Siblings looked particularly green about it.

  6. Thank goodness. Made it by less than a minute.

    How amazing was Viv? It was hard to tell, but it looked like quite a long walk, and even the other teams found the water-carrying hard.

  7. Oh my god that ending. Talk about cutting it fine. When they showed the timer getting closer & closer & they were struggling & had to keep stopping I was worried those bloody influencers would get through again. 50 fucking seconds. Poor Viv’ arms could hardly reach that bloody bucket. She was struggling so much. I was yelling at the TV keep going keep going. I panicked every time she had to stop.

  8. Nothing like cutting it fine heh! Well done Viv, that was a super effort!
    Thank god the influencers have gone, he comes across as a terrible bully….
    Looks like its a romp home for the footy boys, they are pretty unstoppable…kinda getting bored of them winning all the time! Would like to see the Newlyweds or Indigenous couple win personally!

    • The boys have won three quarters of the episodes, so far (losing their position for a brief moment in Mongolia, when they came 5th or something).

      The Race has, in the past, favoured these strong, intelligent, alpha male teams (the first two Australian seasons were won by those teams, and I think the Aus vs NZ season went that way too). They’re strong, smart, physically-capable and intelligent, so they’re obviously capable Racers … but I’m beginning to think it’s got something to do with the nature of the show. The teams are getting chaperoned between countries and the arrival times are being reset every new pit stop.

      That’s taken away a lot of the possibilities for Race disaster (choosing the wrong flight, getting stuck in the wrong country, having to make up a serious time disadvantage the morning after checking in), so the boys aren’t likely to be faced by something that’ll knock them out.

      I’m hesitant to call them as the winners, yet, because the teams left are all pretty capable (the nurses notwithstanding). But I think they’re on track for an easy win, certainly.

    • I like the boys, and they would be worth winners, but there is something about Jasmin and Jerome I love. I think it is just the way they treat each other, and the respect they show everywhere they go. Beautiful examples of a great marriage.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *