Introduction → Leg 1 → Leg 2 → Leg 3 → Leg 4A → Leg 4B → Leg 5 → Leg 6 → Leg 7 → Leg 8 → Leg 9 → Leg 10 → Leg 11 → Leg 12
Leg 15.08 – “I’m tyin’ it!”
The Race continues as teams learn they will be flying to Dubrovnik, Croatia!
All teams will be on the same Turkish Airlines flight via Istanbul, arriving in Dubrovnik at 8am.
Once in Croatia, teams must make their way to Solana Ston.
Teams will need to choose a random cart and then harvest enough salt to fill it to the brim until it begins to overflow.
What teams don’t know is some carts will need more salt than others.
They will then need to push the cart down the tracks to the storage area and unload the salt.
Teams will then dig through a smaller pile of salt for half of a figurine which they must keep until further notice.
Teams must now make their way to the Ston Town Walls.
Here, teams must search along the walls for their next clue and the other half of their figurine. Each figurine is cut in a unique way, so each half only has one match.
Teams will now head into the historic walled city of Dubrovnik and find Fort St. John where they will find a Double Road Block: Up or Down.
The team member who chooses down will first descend down the walls of Fort Bokar, face first.
The team member who chooses up must then abseil up the walls of Fort Lawrence to receive the next clue.
To get from Fort Bokar to Fort Lawrence to complete the Double Road Block, however, teams will need to take a 2-person kayak and row across the water.
After the Double Road Block, teams must make their way to Saint Blaise Church. And here, teams will find the Detour: Cobblestone Delivery or Timed Ties.
In Cobblestone Delivery, teams will load a cart with bottles of local wine and rakija, the most popular hard alcohol in Croatia. They will then navigate the cobblestone streets to deliver the bottles to two different addresses. Once they return their cart and present two receipts, teams will be given the next clue.
Neckties originated here in Croatia after Croatian soldiers and their neckerchiefs caught the eye of Parisians during the Thirty Years’ War. In Timed Ties, teams must learn traditional necktie knots. Then, each team member must tie five neckties on a total of 10 waiting people within a set time limit in order to receive their next clue.
This is also the Trigger Point for this Leg. If any team breaks more than five bottles, the U-Turn or Yield will be activated on the next Leg.
After completing the Detour, teams must find Sponza Palace.
And here, teams will learn an All U-Turn has been activated! All teams must complete the other side of the Detour.
After doing so, teams must make their way to Fort Revelin.
Here, teams must transport 10 cannonballs up to the fort and this cannon to receive the next clue.
That clue tells teams to take a large stone and follow the wall north to Fort Minceta, like all visitors were required to do when the tower was first being built. This is the Pit Stop for this Leg of the Race.
The first team to arrive here will win P200,000 courtesy of Shell V-Power Nitro+.
The last team to check in here WILL be eliminated.
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“Director’s” Commentary
So TARPHDME finally heads to Croatia! It’s been a long time coming as Croatia has been waiting in the wings for a long time now. Hehe.
This Leg is obviously familiar; some of it is recycled from TARAu3’s Dubrovnik Leg. But this one has a lot of additions and modifications that will hopefully make it much more full and exciting.
First off, we start outside of Dubrovnik for some extra tasks. I read about the salt pans of Solana Ston and thought Why not? But unlike previous salt harvesting tasks, this one has a twist. Teams need to fill their salt carts, but each needs a different amount of salt to be filled to the brim. So it will be interesting to see how much luck plays a part. Obviously, some teams will luck out and finish earlier, if they’re fast. Then there’s the physicality of having to push the carts up the rails. Watching this video of Solana Ston, I think there could be lots of great tasks here. One additional task would be for teams to set up their own tracks as well. And having several teams here, maybe even creating a logjam on the tracks might be amazing!
The next Route Marker at the Ston Town Walls is just another extra location outside of Dubrovnik and helps to get the TARPHDME signature “Keep until further notice” task up and running.
Next up, we repurpose TARAu3’s two Road Blocks into one Double Road Block. The whole thing is made more challenging as teams will need to then row between the two locations. (A TAR12 recycle!)
Whenever you need a quick task in any location, a delivery task is the way to go. lol And rolling carts on cobblestone is always a TAR favorite. I am a little more excited about the other side of the Detour with the neckties. There’s a lot going on, from having to be so close to strangers, to memorizing the neckties and then actually having to do them AND in a set time limit? It should be crazy fun! Because of that, this is a perfect place for an All U-Turn. Hehe. I want both Detours to be done. And a Limited Stations Detour could easily do the trick, but why not have teams do both. (If activated of course. lol) That can hopefully cause lots of fun drama and competition.
The cannonballs are just an extra task that obviously fits with the location. And the last task was a fun fact I read about with Fort Minceta. So that should be an extra little task for the race to the Mat. Especially if it’s heavy and causes teams to pass one another!
Overall, a very full Dubrovnik Leg! Looks great on paper at least. Hehe.