Too bad TPTB decided to keep the program to only 60 minutes instead of the traditional 90 or 120 minutes. The opening sequences through the teams boarding their flights to Ireland took up the usual 18 minutes. What was missing from the first ep were the scenic shots of the place being visited; program could have included some great scenics of Ireland, which has been one of the better aspects of the race.
A little abrupt having the teams suddenly arrive in Shannon, and no way would Briish Airways use a 747 for a local flight from Heathrow to Shannon, nor would AerLingus use the same plane from Dublin to Shannon as they do from LAX to Dublin. Oh well, no other visual available I guess.
The cab ride from Shannon to Rossaveel took 2 hours (planes arrived at Shannon at 12:42 and 12:49 and the clock in the ferry terminal showed 2:55 when Azaria and Hendekea bought their ticket for the 4:45 ferry. I hope they all had enough cash to pay for the cab ride!
Interesting to see TK and Rachel still wandering around in front of the terminal at Shannon as the teams from the BA flight started to come through the doorway. They must have seen the other teams grab cabs to get on their way.
Didn't matter, we had a nice speed bump at the ferry terminal as all teams got on the 4:45 ferry.
I wonder if the producers had more planned for Inishmore than just to walk up to the church to get the time for the ferry ride back to Rossaveel?
The time of the return trip was a major factor in the placement of the teams at the end. Teams on the first ferry came in 2, 3, and 4. Only the winners, Azaria and Hendekea picked up time (and they had the one donkey who raced up the trail passing all others) since they were 30 minutes behind. But the teams on the last ferry, 90 minutes behind the leaders, ended up 5,6,7,8, and 9. But two teams on the second ferry ended up as the penultament team and the losers; due to two balking mules.
It was interesting to note that the three teams that arrived on the 8:00 ferry (at 8:55) kept their backpacks on for the bike for two ride, high-wire act, and the donkey pull. The teams arriving on the following ferries all left their backpacks in their SUVs when the tasks began. I wonder who gave the latter teams that good advice. And speaking of Backpacks, it looks like most teams have learned from experience and left all that excess gear at home. Nathan and Jennifer have really small loads.
Considering that the teams arrived back in Rossaveel between 8:55AM and 10:15AM, it looks like the first teams arrived at the mat around noon time, while the final arrivals looked to be several hours later from the way the sun had moved from the side of Phil's head to be full in the face at the end.
At least it is a start, and we detectives had it pretty well cased out along with most of the locations except for the small church on Inishmore.
Now it is onto The Netherlands.!