Introduction → Leg 1 → Leg 2 → Leg 3 → Leg 4 → Leg 5 → Leg 6 → Leg 7 → Leg 8 → Leg 9A → Leg 9B → Leg 10 → Leg 11 → Leg 12
Leg 16.08 – “The blood all over your body is very disconcerting.”
It’s a very early morning (or a very late night, depending on how you look at it) in Bucharest as teams open the first clue of the Leg telling them to hop on a train to the city of Campina.
Teams can take either an 8:25am train or a direct 10am train, both arriving about 20 minutes apart.
Once in Campina, teams must find a brand new 2018 Kia Niro and drive themselves to the Biserica Neagra in Brasov.
The clue teams find there directs them to Bran Castle.
Here, teams will find a Double Yield board. And then their next clue, the Road Block: Who can handle what’s at stake?
Bran Castle is located in this historic region of Transylvania, long associated with the legend of Dracula thanks to the classic novel by Bram Stoker. For this Road Block, teams will jump right into the legend by first searching the forest for one of a dozen chained coffins. They will drag one back to a clearing filled with stakes in the shadow of Bran Castle. Here, teams will undo the chains and open the coffin to reveal wooden frames which they must “impale” by smashing them into the stakes. Once they find a frame that contains a Race flag, they will receive their next clue.
This is also the Trigger Point for this Leg of the Race. If any team gets the flag on their first frame, the U-Turn or Yield will be activated on the next Leg.
Teams must now search the interior of Bran Castle for their next clue.
Teams must now make their way to Rasnov Citadel where they will find the Detour: Defense or Deliver.
In Defense, teams must pick up a set of supplies to build a stone and wood fence on the outskirts of the fortress grounds.
In Deliver, teams must pick up this cart and search the citadel for everyday items on a list needed for a family living in the old times.
After the Detour, teams must drive themselves to this farm. Here, teams must collect enough hay to shovel into a pile measuring 10 feet high. Once approved, teams must then take a bundle of hay to a waiting horse to receive their next clue.
And that clue tells teams to find Turnul Alb in Brasov. This white tower is the Pit Stop for this Leg of the Race.
The first team to check in 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
I think this is an okay Leg. I feel like maybe there should be one more task somewhere here. Or it might fit better as an earlier Leg with more teams. But overall, it’s pretty solid.
Of course with a Bucharest Leg, I can’t not have a Leg in Transylvania. The highlight of this Leg is definitely the recycling of the TAR14 task with the coffin and frames. Instead here, it’s a Road Block so that should make for a little more challenging task than the original. We must definitely ensure the blood flows throughout this task lol
Rewind first though to the driving. Taking the train and then driving the rest of the way is I guess an extra task on its own. It’s also another opportunity to support our loyal sponsor.
Searching inside Bran Castle is also another extra little task while also getting to feature the location more.
Now, I had a little trouble with the Detour. I had the fence/wall making side of the Detour from the beginning. But originally, the other side of the Detour was archery. Then I realized we already did archery in Bhutan. At least, making an archery kit and the Bhutanese dart sport khuru. So I had to swap that out here for a more generic delivery task. (Always a go-to easy fill-in lol) A real life scouting trip to the location of course would solve our creativity problems. lol
Finally, while Google scouting the area, I came across the photos of that big pile of hay. So I decided why not. It’s an easy task to have here. And hay is always another go-to rural task as well.
Overall, a solid Leg that can be fine-tuned in real life.