The Amazing Race > Amazing Race 34
TAR34 racing reports. Episode #12 is on page 1
maf:
Racing report
Amazing Race Season 34, Episode 9, "Vamos a la Playa"
Film date: 2022-06-11 or 2022-06-12
The last leg ended in Toulouse, France. During the Pit Stop teams are flown to Málaga, Spain. They are released from the top of a tower of Castillo de Gibralfaro.
Group #1 at 08:00:
1. Derek & Claire
1. Luis & Michelle
Group #2 at 08:15:
3. Emily & Molly
3. Marcus & Michael
3. Aubrey & David
The first clue welcomes them to another Mega leg and tells them to make their way on foot to Plaza de la Merced, the birthplace of Pablo Picasso. It also says that they have €0 for this leg of the race.
It is a long steep path down from the starting line and, unsurprisingly, Emily suffers with her bad leg.
"This is killing me", Emily
Teams arrive to the plaza (1.4km) in the following order:
1(+0) Derek & Claire
2(-1) Luis & Michelle, just after #1
3(+0) Aubrey & David
4(-1) Marcus & Michael
5(-2) Emily & Molly, before any teams have left
Road block: Who will be the master of pieces?
In this road block contestants must recreate on of Pablo Picasso's paintings known as the Three Musicians. This is a cubist painting where the original is more than 2x2m. Teams will piece together a slightly smaller replica of it from 6 panels of painted glass. The panels needs to be placed in a frame in the correct order and orientation. There is a small replica of the actual painting they can look at. Each contestant also gets an assistant who can help them handle the panels.
It seems the panels are made of Plexiglass and not real glass. Which is probably a good idea. Real glass panes of that size would have been very heavy and would probably shatter if dropped.
Claire and Michelle did not see the example painting when they choose their stations so they end up with the station furthest from the example. Which just means a lot of running for them.
"This brown blob goes in front of the blue blob which is in front of the black blob", Claire descries the task
"It was hot out", Aubrey feels that the heat makes the task harder
"I just don't want her to feel, that if we go out today, that it is her fault, Molly with tears in her eyes as Emily with her bad leg is doing the task
It seems as if their helpers at least understand English so this makes things a lot easier as the racers can tell them what to do.
Marcus is having a hard time. After a while his only problem is that he has flipped his back piece. But it takes him a long time to figure that out.
Michelle gets really flustered when team #2 leaves. But she realizes this and manages to pull herself together. Then she spots her mistake and gets approved.
We see that once a team is done their station is covered up so you can not study the completed ones. There is also at least one extra station so even Molly & Emily, who got here last, have at least two stations to choose between.
Teams complete this road block in the following order (* denotes team member doing the roadblock):
1(+0)Derek & Claire* (4-5)2(+1)Aubrey* & David (4-5)3(-1)Luis & Michelle* (5-4)4(+1)Emily* & Molly (4-5)5(-1)Marcus* & Michael(5-4)Quite a while after #5
Route info: Travel by bicycle to El Cubo in the port of Málaga to find your next clue.
For some reason the bicycles are parked next to a cathedral about 500m away from the road block location.
"Did you see El Cubo?, Molly as they are passing the big glass cube
The girls continue past El Cubo but soon realize that they have overshot it and turn around.
Teams find the clue by El Cubo by Centre Pompidou Mälaga (1km) in the following order:
1(+0) Derek & Claire
2(+0) Aubrey & David
3(+0) Luis & Michelle
4(+0) Emily & Molly
5(+0) Marcus & Michael
Detour: Fish fry or Sailboat supply
In Fish Fry teams need to spear, grill and serve 18 small fish.
In Sailboat Supply teams will have to inflate a stand up paddle-board and then transport a cooler full of ice and 8 life wests to a yacht anchored off shore. The tricky part with this detour is that there are choppy waves so getting started on the paddle-board is tricky. The rules here also say that if you spill too much ice you have to go back and get more. And everything has to be delivered in one go.
The actual detours take place by Playa des Palo (5.8km). The fish grilling happens on the beach by Canta el Gallo. The clue seems to include directions for how to get there.
"I don't know how to go fast on this thing, I'm scared", Derek has crashed on a bicycle before
"When I was not vegan I never cooked a fish, in my life", Claire, who has been vegan for the last 5 years, has no fish experience
"I did not touch, really the fish at all", Claire interviews after the detour
"We're from Miami, we've done paddle-boarding. The crazy part is that we practiced paddle-boarding before went on the race", Louis on why they did the paddle-boarding
The tricky part with the fish frying is that you have to be careful when skewering the fish. If you are not careful they will fall off eventually. This happens to a number of teams.
Aubrey turns out to have had traumatic experiences with Sardines when her Grandma used to eat them when she was small.
"I don't eat fish because of that", Aubrey
"We're just get an extra skewer going, just in case", Claire is smart
"As a dancer I present, and he does the work", Michelle as Louis frantically pumps their paddle-board
Derek helps Aubrey & David with a bunch of tips on how to grill their fish.
"We're willing to help you up until it's not helpful for us", Claire
I get the impression that Derek & Claire would rather race against Aubrey & David in the finale than any of the other remaining teams.
Emily & Molly arrive to the fish frying as the first team is leaving.
"Oh god, I love you", Emily is grossed out by the fish so she is happy that Molly does the skewering
But after a while we she that she also starts skewering, which is good as that is a time consuming step.
Luis & Michelle almost loose the cooler of ice in the choppy waves, but they manage to catch it just in time and eventually get out of the choppy section. When they reach the sailboat we see that the crew is a bit bizarre. The captain is a bearded guy in shorts and he is accompanied by two young pretty girls in bikinis. There is a camera crew there as well but they do their best to stay out of sight.
Molly & Emily struggle with the fish grilling. Molly interviews that she has trouble with perfectionism and they could probably have been done faster if she did not insist the fish should look perfect. Even so on their first judging the judge rejects one of their plates as the fishes have not being sufficiently grilled.
By now Marcus & Michael have arrived. Both remaining teams are smart and are grilling more fish than they will need (good if you drop some for example).
Teams complete the detour in the following order:
1(+0) Derek & Claire, Fish
2(+0) Aubrey & David, Fish
3(+0) Luis & Michelle, Paddle-board
?(+?) Emily & Molly, Fish
?(+?) Marcus & Michael, Fish
The next clue seems to just be a postcard with the text "Welcome to Megaleg" on it. On the back it says "Find the tour guide here for your next clue".
Teams get into convertibles and drive on to the next task.
And this where the first half of this mega leg ends. Three teams are driving towards their next destination and the two trailing teams are still at the first detour.
maf:
Racing report
Amazing Race Season 34, Episode 10, "Don't look down"
Film date: 2022-06-12
This is the second part of a mega leg which started in Málaga, Spain. The previous episode ended with three teams in their cars on the way to their next destination and two teams left at the detour.
This is actually a bit of deceptive editing. Once teams were done with the detour they had a 45 minute break. I guess that they got lunch and a check up and the camera teams got a chance to rest.
We also know that Marcus & Michael had a production issue earlier in the mega leg and due to that they got a time credit and thus they had a shorter break.
This episode starts just before the front teams get into their cars. The clue they got after the detour was a postcard. This shows a bridge and the text "Welcome to Mega Leg". On the back it says "Find the tour guide here for your next clue". An interesting detail is that the cards the racers get differ from the one we are shown.
For this leg teams are driving convertibles so for a change they both get to sit in the front seats. The camera team follow in a separate van.
"Watching fish cook by this method is like watching paint dry, it's just taking forever", Michael
Teams will eventually leave the previous road block in the following order:
1. Derek & Claire
2. Aubrey & David
3. Luis & Michelle
4. Emily & Molly
5. Marcus & Michael
Any local seem to be able to tell the teams that the bridge featured on the post card is in Ronda.
Derek & Claire start in the lead but soon make a wrong turn and end up on a small street. The street gets smaller and smaller and eventually Derek decided to turn around. Here we learn that he is not a good driver. We we get to see him starting to turn and then a sign '5 minutes later' and then he completes the turn and they are able to drive back.
"It's not over until Phil says it's over", Michael hope they can catch up
Teams arrive in Ronda (114km) in the following order:
1(+2) Luis & Michelle
2(-1) Derek & Claire
3(-1) Aubrey & David, just after #2
4(+0) Emily & Molly
5(+0) Marcus & Michael, a bit but not that far behind team #4 (according to the shadows)
Teams leave their cars at the valet at Parador de Ronda. Which incidentally makes it so that teams can not see how many teams are in front by counting the cars.
The tour guide is easy to find. She stands on the bridge holding an Andalusian flag (which will become important later in the leg).
Detour: Bend over Backwards or Dress for Success
In Bend over Backwards teams will have to build a brick arch. In practice they get a wooden support and must place bricks on it. The outer side of the bricks needs to be separated by small pebbles. There is a judge checking their work and once he approves the wooden support is removed and the bricks are supposed to stay in place.
In Dress for Success teams must put the correct accessories on a Flamenco dancer. They first get to watch a performance and must study her costume. They must then dress another dancer to match. There are a couple of catches in this. First they seem to not be allowed to go too near the example. The second catch is that the actual accessories can be picked up in a shop a block away. The shop carries a number of nearly identical shawls and other accessories, of which only one is correct. Finally they do not get told what is wrong if they make an error. In total teams must correctly match five different accessories.
The Dress for Success detour takes place in a restaurant called El Casino (350m). The shop is about 70m away and teams do not need to pay for any of the accessories they pick up.
"She's moving so much", Michelle find it hard to see what the dancer is wearing
Aubrey & David and Derek & Claire arrive at the detour as Louis & Michelle are still doing it. The latter have been there for a while and are close to getting it, they only need to figure out that they have picked the wrong shawl. We also see that once a team has gotten their dancer approved the dancer gets "reset", that is all the accessories are removed.
Aubrey & David feel grateful for Derek & Claire helping them at the fish grilling earlier in the leg so the two teams work together during this detour.
Molly & Emily get directions to the detour just as Aubrey & David are leaving. They then promptly overshoots the location but eventually they get there.
"This running's gonna kill me", Emily is still having a lot of issues with her knee
Marcus & Michael seem to have a hard time with the bricks task. Their arch is shown being rejected once as they have forgotten to put pebbles between a couple of bricks.
Teams complete the detour in the following order:
1(+0) Luis & Michelle, dress
2(+1) Aubrey & David, dress, probably not long after 15:12
3(-1) Derek & Claire, dress
4(+0) Emily & Molly, dress, do 3 trips to the shop
5(+0) Marcus & Michael, bricks
Once done Aubrey & David stay and help Derek & Claire to spot what their error is (they have the wrong castanets).
Route info: Make your way to Paseo de Kazunori Yamauchi and find the wood carver to receive your next clue.
Teams must now make their way on foot to an area next to the big gorge spanned by the bridge in the postcard they got earlier. Teams reach the wood carver in the following order:
1(+0) Luis & Michelle
2(+0) Aubrey & David
3(+0) Derek & Claire
4(+0) Emily & Molly
5(+0) Marcus & Michael
Road block: Who's been paying attention?
In this road block racers must walk a tightrope below the Puente Nuevo bridge. Once they get to the other side they see five clues and a sign: "Choose one clue with the Andalusian flag on it". They must pick the right clue and bring it back to their partner where they may open it. If they pick the wrong one they have to go back and try again.
Actually walking the tightrope is not that hard as they have two guide ropes to hold on to and the distance is not that far. But it is far above the bottom of the ravine. Also there are two parallel ropes so two teams can go simultaneously.
"I love heights, I'm so excited", Michelle is happy when she finds out what she has to do
"This is the best thing that's ever happened to me", Michelle sings as she is walking the tightrope
"I'm really scared of heights", Aubrey does not look forward to the task
"I really don't like heights at all", Claire is also not comfortable
"Just don't look down", Aubrey gets the title
Aubrey and Claire are really not the right choice for this task. They do it at the same time so they can help each other.
"Claire, how're you doing mama?", Aubrey
"Please don't talk to me. I'm sorry", Claire is very focused
"Talking was actually helping me", Aubrey is trying to distract herself
In both teams their partners think the girls have better memory and that is why they are doing this task. But when they reach the clues neither of them is certain. Aubrey thinks it is the green flag so they both pick it. Both teams are very relieved when it turns out to be the correct clue and they do not have to do the walking again.
Claire has a small breakdown when she reaches Derek, she really had a hard time with the height.
Emily has her bad knee but no fear of heights and slightly better memory so it is not that bad that she does this road block. Plus it lets them choose who will do the road block in the next leg. If Molly had done this then Emily had to do the next one.
"Are you kidding me?", Emily when she see the question
Emily did study flags before coming on the race but not regional ones (and who can blame her) and the only one she recognize is the Spanish flag. But she picks the right clue and does not have to redo the task.
Michael also has no fear of heights and picks the correct flag so it seems he completes this task very quickly.
Teams complete this road block in the following order (* denotes team member doing the roadblock):
1(+0)Luis & Michelle* (5-5)2(+0)Aubrey* & David (5-5)3(+0)Derek & Claire* (4-6)4(+0)Emily* & Molly (5-5)5(+0)Marcus & Michael*(5-5)
Route info: Race to your your next Pit Stop. Find Phil on the terrace between Ernest and Orson. Warning! the last team to check in will be eliminated.
The clue leads racers to Mirador de Ronda where the entrance contains plaques honoring Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles.
Teams reach Phil and the mat (~300m) in the following order:
1(+0) Luis & Michelle, win Expedia points for a trip to Tokyo
2(+0) Aubrey & David
3(+0) Derek & Claire, shortly after #2
4(+0) Emily & Molly
5(+0) Marcus & Michael, are eliminated
Poor Marcus & Michael are not having a good day. They have not seen any other teams since the fish grilling at the start of this episode. And by the shadows we see that they are way behind the other teams when they reach the pit stop. It seems as if the brick detour took a really long time for them.
In a post race interview we learn that Marcus & Michael left the Picasso detour (in the first half of the Mega leg) 45 minutes after Emily & Molly. This implies that the fish frying detour took more than 45 minutes which is longer than I expected. Marcus also said that when they arrived in Ronda they spotted the Wood Carver before they found the tour guide. He just had one clue left and when they looked down they saw Emily doing the Road Block. So they knew their fate was sealed.
"It was a blessing to be here, it has been great", Michael
maf:
I added this to the leg #10 report as this is info we learned in the exit interviews. It seems as if it was the Picasso task which did them in.
--- Quote from: maf on November 27, 2022, 10:45:11 PM ---In a post race interview we learn that Marcus & Michael left the Picasso detour (in the first half of the Mega leg) 45 minutes after Emily & Molly. This implies that the fish frying detour took more than 45 minutes which is longer than I expected. Marcus also said that when they arrived in Ronda they spotted the Wood Carver before they found the tour guide. He just had one clue left and when they looked down they saw Emily doing the Road Block. So they knew their fate was sealed.
--- End quote ---
cbacbacba1:
--- Quote from: maf on November 29, 2022, 11:44:54 AM ---I added this to the leg #10 report as this is info we learned in the exit interviews. It seems as if it was the Picasso task which did them in.
--- Quote from: maf on November 27, 2022, 10:45:11 PM ---In a post race interview we learn that Marcus & Michael left the Picasso detour (in the first half of the Mega leg) 45 minutes after Emily & Molly. This implies that the fish frying detour took more than 45 minutes which is longer than I expected. Marcus also said that when they arrived in Ronda they spotted the Wood Carver before they found the tour guide. He just had one clue left and when they looked down they saw Emily doing the Road Block. So they knew their fate was sealed.
--- End quote ---
--- End quote ---
In the same exit interview, Marcus revealed they took more than an hour to complete the bricks building detour and Michael did NOT complete the tightrope in one go.
maf:
Racing report
Amazing Race Season 34, Episode 11, "How am I going to survive this?"
Film date: 2022-06-14
The last leg ended in Ronda, Spain and during the Pit Stop teams are transported to Iceland. Here teams are flown in helicopters to the starting line by Sólheimajökull (a glacier). The flight looks, as expected, magical and the landscape is very dramatic. We only see two helicopters and each seem to only hold one team so there might have been two trips.
"It literally felt like I was James bond", Derek
"I was your Bond girl, right?", Claire (and Derek hesitates before answering)
We also see that the racers have been given winter clothes in their team colors.
Teams are released in two groups:
Group #1 at 13:00:
1. Luis & Michelle
1. Aubrey & David
Group #2 at 13:15:
3. Derek & Claire
3. Emily & Molly
The first task will be to do an ice climb on the Sólheimajökull glacier. That is they must walk a short distance and then each team member must use Crampons and Ice axes to climb a steep ice wall to pick up a flag at the top. The task does not seem to take long as the first two teams are gone when the second group arrives.
Teams complete the climb in the following order:
1(+0) Luis & Michelle
2(-1) Aubrey & David
3(+0) Derek & Claire
4(-1) Emily & Molly
Route info: Drive to Fljótshlíđarfoss to find your next clue.
There is a bit of a walk to the car park from the ice climb location (at least 600m). Here teams find big hulking Land Rovers. These are clearly made to drive over rough terrain rather than city streets as they are fitted with large tires and snorkels. They turn out to be stick shift and have two sticks (the second one controls the 4x4 system).
"Wow, I feel so manly right now", Luis when driving away
Emily's knee is still in a bad shape so Molly does her best to talk about other things.
"Distraction technique is a really great pain management strategy", Molly
"That was not a car... that was like a spaceship", Derek found the car hard to manage
David & Aubrey have reverted to having Aubrey navigate because this car has a manual transmission.
There are some issues navigating to Fljótshlíđarfoss. Luis & Michelle think they have missed their exit and turn around. This causes Aubrey & David, who are driving just in front of them, to also turn.
"We shouldn't take them out of our sight... they are really good with directions", Aubrey on why they should follow Luis & Michelle
Shortly thereafter they pass Derek & Claire who are driving in the other direction.
"They're also really good with directions", Aubrey
In the end both teams who turned around turn around again and follow Derek & Claire
Teams arrive to Fljótshlíđarfoss (60km) in the following order:
1(+2) Derek & Claire
2(+0) Aubrey & David
3(-2) Luis & Michelle
4(+0) Emily & Molly
Road block: Who's feeling misty-eyed?
The clue also states that Derek must do this road block (as they are the only team with a mismatched road block count).
In this road block contestants must abseil 100ft into a cave, pick up a clue, and then jump, swim and slide the rest of a canyoning course in order to get back to their partner.
The abseiling part of the task ends in a water filled cave and teams must look around to find their next clue, which is easy to spot.
"I'm not afraid of heights... but it was when I saw that there was water involved that I was like, Crap", David
Here we learn that David's Achilles heel is water.
"I don't swim", David
So David is the only racer not having the presence of mind to look around for the clue first. Instead he immediately makes for the other end, which was the wrong thing to do. He is still looking for the clue over there when Luis is lowered into the pool. Luis immediately spots the clues, which are close to him. David also see where Luis pick up his clue but he has to make his way over there, which he does by following the edge to avoid having to swim.
Molly is also not really thrilled about this task but she doesn't hesitate and goes as fast as she can. She catches up to David towards the end but is not fast enough to pass him.
Teams complete this road block in the following order (* denotes team member doing the roadblock):
1(+0)Derek* & Claire (5-6)2(+1)Luis* & Michelle (6-5)3(-1)Aubrey & David* (5-6)4(+0)Emily & Molly* (5-6)
Route info: Drive to the Silfra Fissure in the Thingvellir National Park to find your next clue.
Teams arrive at Silfra (119km) in the following order:
1(+0) Derek & Claire
2(+0) Luis & Michelle, seconds after #1
3(+0) Aubrey & David, just as the first team has gotten into their dry suits and are about to start their swim
4(+0) Emily & Molly, a minute or so after #3
Route info: It's time for an Expedia experience. Swim the Silfra fissure where the Eurasia and North America tectonic plates collide.
Teams will now go snorkeling in the frigid cold water of the Silfra fissure. They will be wearing dry suits but it is still very cold. While swimming they must spot signs lying on the bottom containing names of different volcanoes and which year they last erupted. After the swim they must place markers with the volcano names next to pre-printed years on a big board. There seems to be no extra markers. Once they are correct the judge will remove a plug and a bunch of sand will pour out and reveal their next clue: "Drive to Gullfoss". There are 14 signs (but the racers are not told that).
The correct order is:
2021: Fagradalsfjall
2011: Grímsvötn
2010: Eyjafjallajökull
2004: Grímsvötn
1991: Hekla
2973: Eldfell
1963: Surtsey
1875: Askja
1823: Katla
1766: Hekla
1625: Katla
1477: Torfajökull
1104: Hekla
934: Eldgjá
The clue also says: "If you're incorrect, you must swim the fissure again".
"I can see my lips turning blue and my mouth is hard to move, it was freezing", Luis about the water
This task is something as unusual as one where Luis & Michelle do not communicate well. She is eager and presses on and does not see that he is falling behind as he tries to memorize the names and after a while he gets confused about which names he should learn and which ones she is handling. And it turns out that you may not go back.
"It's gorgeous, way better than the city pool", Claire
Emily notices that the signs in the water are in chronological order from newest to oldest so all you need to do is memorize the order.
On their first attempt Luis & Michelle have 2 names wrong. Emily & Molly have also switched two names on their first attempt.
Aubrey & David have 10 errors after their first swim and during their next swim David runs into problems. His goggles keep fogging up and he couldn't catch his breath due to the cold water. On their second check they have 8 names wrong. In true Amazing race style teams are only told if they are correct or not, but the viewers get to see a graphic highlighting their errors.
Aubrey & David have a hard time with this task. They do the snorkeling two times and the second go seems to be even more difficult for David than the first one. When they get back from that one all the other teams have already left. They make one more guess and when they hear that this is incorrect they give up and decide to take the penalty.
"It wasn't worth it, for us to do it again", Aubrey
This decision was probably made easier by the fact that they knew they were last and that there was a high probability that the next stop was the pit stop.
Teams complete this task in the following order
1(+0) Derek & Claire, on their 1st attempt
2(+0) Luis & Michelle, on their 2nd attempt
3(+1) Emily & Molly, on their 2nd attempt
DNF(-1) Aubrey & David, took the penalty after making two attempts
At Gullfoss (68km) teams find Phil and the mat. They reach him in the following order:
1(+0) Derek & Claire, win Expedia points for a trip to London
2(+0) Luis & Michelle
3(+0) Emily & Molly
4(+0) Aubrey & David, are eliminated
This time we get to see Phil introduce the greeter as famous actor Ólafur Ólafsson (who has been in a bunch of American TV series).
"It was a honor and a pleasure', David
Next week the finale takes place in Nashville, TN.
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