The Amazing Race Australia – Episode Eight
The Leg
  
Chris & Anastasia can’t celebrate their first place win since the leg isn’t over yet (and we can say this is one leg because they got no prize). They open the next clue telling teams to take a train to Krakow, Poland where they’ll find a car in the carpark with their next clue.
They head to the station but miss the train to Krakow by minutes. That allows Tyler & Nathan, Jeff & Luke, and Sam & Renae to catch up for the train getting them into Krakow at 3:16am.
Dave & Kelly and Matt & Tom end up on a train that gets them in at 6:24am.
En route to Krakow, it’s time for the missing passport drama that’s been hyped up the entire week. The surfers and Sam & Renae sleep in the same cabin and Sam apparently notices two guys creeping through the window every couple of minutes. They suddenly realize Tyler & Nathan’s fanny pack is missing. They go up and down the train and eventually the girls just happen to come across it in an empty cabin. Passports are in the pack, but all the cash is gone.
And so ends the overhyped passport drama.
The teams arrive in Krakow, find the cars and open their next clue which contains the Road Block.
In this Road Block, teams head to the Wieliczka Salt Mine where they will descend 100 meters underground and push a cart full of rock salt down to the end of a mineshaft and dig through it to find crystal keys, one of which will open the ancient salt king’s crypt and reveal their next clue.
  
Teams head to the salt mine, but HOURS OF OPERATION! strike. The sign says 6am, but for some reason Jeff tells Sam & Renae 8am. Luke is flabbergasted. What are you even saying, he asks and makes a face which sets off his father.
Luke gets a head start at the Road Block and finds one of the crystals but it doesn’t work. The other three teams roll in and start digging, but it’s Luke that finds the right key first. Nathan asks what it looks like, but Luke doesn’t give them a clue.
Jeff & Luke head back above ground and open the clue to reveal the Detour.
In Herd, teams drive into the countryside where they arrange a sheep pen and herd three marked sheep into the pen for their next clue.
In Hoe Down, teams head to the town of Zakopane where they’ll dress in traditional Highland costume and learn and perform the trational Polish axe dance.
  
The teams all choose Herd, including Matt & Tom and Dave & Kelly who are bringing up the rear. Sam & Renae get to the sheep first and while the other three catch up, they finish first as well.
Teams must now head to Cape Stylchen in Czorstyn where they’ll encounter an Intersection.
Sam & Renae and Chris & Anastasia get there first and team up. Here, teams must use a double-handled saw to slice off four slabs from a log, alternating partners after each slab.
Sam & Renae go first and realize this isn’t going to be easy. Tyler & Nathan and Jeff & Luke team up and even Matt & Tom and Dave & Kelly catch up with all six teams now at the Intersection task.
  
Sam & Renae get through their slice, but Anastasia is struggling through theirs. She pushes through the pain and frustration, but just can’t take it anymore. They decide to quit the task which ensures a four hour penalty.
They are given the next clue and sure enough, it is the Pit Stop at Niedzica Castle. Sam & Renae step on the Mat and Grant tells them they have a two hour penalty since they had made one cut in the task. Chris & Anastasia get the full four hour penalty.
Jeff & Luke and Tyler & Nathan finish the task and they head to the Pit Stop. Tyler & Nathan settle for 2nd as they let Jeff & Luke take the win and the A$10,000 for being so instrumental in their finishing the leg.
  
While Dave and Tom saw their last block, Sam & Renae’s penalty is over and they check in 3rd.
It’s over for Chris & Anastasia as Dave & Kelly and Matt & Tom officially check in 4th and 5th respectively. And the dating couple is officially eliminated from the Race.
Episode Thoughts
A crazy leg thanks in large part to that horribly placed Intersection. First time an Intersection has appeared on any Race before a non-Road Block or Detour I believe. And the first time an Intersection has appeared right before a Pit Stop.
Definitely an odd placement for one. But what’s even more baffling is how difficult the task was especially considering TARA4 did that same task, only harder in Leg 6 in New Zealand. On TARA, it wasn’t an intersection, but teams had to saw off four slices and then individually slice one each… on their own. How teams struggled here on TARAu either says a lot about Australians, a lot about Asians, or a lot about the difference between logs and saws in New Zealand and Poland.
Both times were pretty physical, but TARA’s task was not the deciding factor in the elimination since it wasn’t right before the Pit Stop.
And the placement of the double leg, proven to be on the wrong point in the Race since the train just bunched them all up anyway. Plus the Detour was a pretty lopsided one too.
And what about that passport faux-drama eh? Those two creepers being nice and considerate and leaving their passports while only taking the money. Really? That seems a lot fishier than just random wackos going around stealing stuff.
Leg design criticism aside, Poland looks beautiful indeed.
But what about that preview… ISRAEL!?!?! TAR going to ISRAEL?! That’ll certainly be interesting.
And on the lighter side of things, that Polish grandma’s “eh, whatever” to the surfers as they rudely snub her was cute and funny. More awesome locals on TAR please!
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