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 17.06 – “You can’t finish a Leg before finishing it!”
After teams are magically transported back to Libreville, teams will open the next clue telling them to fly to Dublin, Ireland!
All teams will be on the same Air France flight via Paris CDG, arriving in Dublin at 10:40am.
Teams must search the carpark for a brand new 2019 Kia Stonic. The clue inside the brand new 2019 Kia Stonic tells teams to drive to Dublin Castle and search for their next clue.
But! Here they will find a Forced Double U-Turn Vote Board!
After teams vote for the two teams they want to see U-Turned, teams must now make their way to Guinness Storehouse for their next clue.
Guinness is one of the most well-known and successful beer brands worldwide. For this task, teams must figure out how to transport four barrels of Guinness to a waiting boat on the Grand Canal which was used to first export Guinness to the West of Ireland in the 1800s.
After transporting the barrels, teams must drive themselves to Howth Castle.
Teams will find the Double U-Turn Reveal Board and their next clue which reveals the Detour: February 1st or October 31st.
In February 1st, teams will celebrate the feast day of one of Ireland’s patron saints, St. Brigid, by making Brigid’s Cross, a small cross woven from rushes. Both team members will first learn how to make a small version of the cross and then successfully each make one before both can work together to make a large version of the cross.
In October 31st, teams will celebrate Halloween with two Irish Halloween traditions. First, teams will snap and bob for apples. One team member will be blindfolded and try to find an apple suspended from a string while their hands are tied behind their back. Once they get a bite of the apple, their teammate will bob for an apple in a basin of water. When both team members are able to bite into their apples, they can work together to carve out a turnip to make a Jack-O-Lantern which is said to have originated here in in Ireland.
After the Detour, teams must now drive themselves to Croke Park.
Here, teams will play one of Ireland’s native Gaelic Games, hurling. Teams will learn how to pick up a ball, known as the sliotar, using a wooden hurley. Each team member must be able to pick up the sliotar and then score three points. Teams can score a point if the ball goes over the crossbar or three points if they score by hitting the ball below the crossbar. When teams get their total of six points, they will get the next clue.
This is also the Trigger Point for this Leg of the Race. If at least two teams score all their points by hitting the ball below the crossbar, a “goal”, then the U-Turn or Yield will be activated on the next Leg.
Teams must now make their way to this pub.
Here, teams will learn and perform an Irish dance routine in full costume. Teams will then be given two small replicas of the embroidered pattern on their costumes to keep until further notice.
Teams must now drive to the Library at Trinity College Dublin. And here, teams will find the Road Block: Who thinks they’re book smart?
The library at Trinity College is the permanent home of the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin. For this Road Block, teams must use the embroidered pattern they received at the Irish dancing task to search the library for a matching pattern printed on a piece of parchment located somewhere in the books of the library. When they’ve found the parchment, teams can exchange it for their next clue.
That clue tells teams the Pit Stop of the Leg is in Parliament Square, right outside the library of Trinity College!
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.
“Director’s” Commentary
Finally TARPHDME goes to Ireland!
I think this could be a very good Leg. First, it’s always great to have a self driving Leg. It is essentially an extra task on its own.
Having a task involving Guinness would be awesome for a visit to Dublin. (Great sponsorship opportunity too!) And it’s a good physical buffer task between the U-Turn vote board and the reveal board.
For the Detour, it was very interesting to read about these two holiday traditions. Especially the factoid that Jack-O-Lanterns were basically invented in Ireland! How interesting. So both Detours should be challenging enough and tedious enough to get teams very competitive early on.
Up next, it’s a sports task of course. And it should be interesting to see how teams can perform at hurling. It’s certainly a different type of sport they might not be used to. Another alternate task is to have teams do a skills type of challenge as well instead of scoring points.
Of course we gotta have teams learn some Irish dancing. And after a reasonably full first half of the Leg already, having to learn the possibly physical dance while already tired should be great fun to watch.
Finally, we have the Road Block. I definitely want to use the library at Trinity College as a location. And it should look great in the evening or after dark. Especially the Pit Stop after dark as well.
Now for the final sequence of events on this Leg, our hope is teams will see the Mat before going to the library and think they can check in at the Pit Stop already. Only to be told that they haven’t finished the Leg yet. Also, we can hope that teams leave their stuff in their cars so once teams have finished the Road Block, one might have to go back to the car while the other can go directly to the Mat resulting in an exciting foot race for elimination!
I think for other possible tasks, one involving St. Patrick would be nice too.
Overall, a very nice and very full Leg!