Reality Ravings

The Amazing Race is now down to 10 teams, after the shock elimination of two teams in the first episode. I wonder if this is some sort of budget cut back from the production company?

The teams took off at 9.00pm at night they were to go to the capital of Mongolia Ulaan Batur to find their next clue.

Five of the teams were to be on the bus that left at 12.00am, and the other five's bus left at 2.00am. This time gap turned out to be immaterial as they were all to get on the same train at a mongolian/chinese border town.

The Kentucky couple said they had led a pretty sheltered life as they had never met an asian person or known a gay person. They thought both were great. What they probably did not realise is that they did know gay people they just were not out!

When they arrived at Ulaan Batur it looked incredibly cold, which got me thinking how do these people pack everything for ever climate without having a 20 kilo pack. Also I wonder if there is an opportunity to wash clothes along the way or do you just stink?

Once they had found the temple the watched small ceremony and got their next clue. They were to drive to Terej and go to the river bed to ride a horse to their next clue.

Unfortunately for the contestants Mercedes were not sponsoring this leg of the race, and they were having to drive old Russian cars which looked a bit like four-wheel drives.

You knew there was going to be some disasters, as there is a reason why there are no Russian makes on the international market.

So off they all raced. Dustin and Candace, the beauty queens, got lucky and managed to stumble across an American who knew where they needed to go. As did someone else come across and expat for directions. Why were there so many expats in the town? Is is oil or Government organisations? Just seems a strange place to go and work.

Tyler & James the model ex junkies got a flat tyre and had to wait for some locals to come to the rescue.

Kentucky's got bogged. Not sure how they managed that, but a replacement car was brought in.

So it was then onto these horse or mini horse to get to the detour clue. Kimberly fell off and did not get back on as she was too scared.

One of the beauty queens fell off and got dragged along for a bit but with no damage done, except perhaps for pride.

The detour was a choice between two tasks, one was to take down a yurt, making sure it was tied the correct way and placed on a camel, and the other was to take a buffalo (not correct name for the creature) and wagon and fill up four barrel's of water.

This is when the meltdowns started. Sarah and Peter started on the yurt then decided it was too difficult to do the knots so went and did the water carrying task but managed to get the most recalcitrant cow of the whole lot as he kept on taking off. So in the end they went back to the yurt task, which they completed to come third at the detour.

Candice and Dustin flew through the detour, however she lost her traditional Mongolian hat which was required to ride the horses back to the cars. So they were nearly last to leave the field as it took awhile for them to find.

Duke and Lauren, father and gay daughter ended up being first to leave the detour as they completed the packing up the yurt easily.

Rob and Kimberley supposedly in a relationship, just spent the whole detour yelling at each other. I don't see this relationship surviving long after the completion of the race.

Next was to drive to Hotel Mongolia in Gak Hurst to find there next clue.

It was a roadblock where archery, a lighted flame and a target was involved.

Disaster struck the Korean brothers on the way as their car broke down as just about everyone passed them except the last two teams. They were having their own woes back at the detour. The Alabaman single mums had picked the water task but were taking their time, and the cheerleaders were packing up the yurt. I don't know what happened to the cheerleaders I think there car may have broken down or they got horribly lost. Both of them finished the detour at the same time but both their cars would not start.

Anyway back to the roadblock Peter the triathlete, managed to hit the target quickly and they ran to the pitstop to take out first prize. This was a trip for 2 to Mexico. Then came Tyler & James, and third were Lauren and Duke.

At this stage the cheerleaders and single mums had got there cars started and were driving towards the roadblock, but for some reason the cheerleaders thought they were going the wrong way and turned around.

The mums drove by them, the cheerleaders just kept on driving the wrong way until they finally decided to ask for directions.

It was getting dark by the time the single mums arrived to shoot their archery. The cheerleaders who were having a very bad day finally gave up trying to hit the target in the dark and went to the pit stop to be told by Phil they were eliminated.