Recap: The Amazing Race Australia 5, Episode 3 – “Stop pumping my arm like you’re doing my blood pressure.”

The third Leg of the Race begins as teams learn they will be traveling to Winton in the Outback. Before heading to the airport, Holly & Dolor find out their Salvage advantage is being able to jump the queue at any challenge. Jude & Shannon’s Sabotage, however, is for one of them to not speak at all during this Leg. They decide Shannon will remain silent.

To get to Winton, teams first fly into Longreach. After a Welcome to Country ceremony, Beau summons the teams to the parking lot for an announcement. Because Alex & Jack withdrew from the Race, he is giving Dwes & Katherine a second chance. The cousins come running out of the airport to rejoin the Race.

Beau then flags the teams off to continue Racing. Teams must now hop into their cars and drive themselves to Winton.

In Winton, teams will take part in a Dunny Derby. They will invite a local to ride in a mobile dunny which they will pull around a race course. One team member must balance a bedpan full of dunny water on their head in order to fill a bucket up to a marked line at the end of each lap.

The Gold Coast Girls move into first place, followed closely by the Cowboys and Jordan & Violeta. Shane & Deb, Chris & Aleisha, Sefa & Jessica are next to follow.

After the dunny race, teams can now drive to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum. At the museum, teams must dig up 33 wooden dinosaur bones and piece them together to assemble a full dinosaur skeleton. If they break any bones, they will incur a penalty at the Pit Stop.

All the other teams are at the museum already as Jude & Shannon make their way over. Shannon not speaking is becoming increasingly difficult for them.

The sun is setting and teams are still working on their dinosaurs. Currently in the back, Holly & Dolor decide to just copy other teams’ skeletons. Dolor says he has no problem cheating on exams, especially with no rules about it.

After a few checks, Shane & Deb are the first to get their dinosaur approved followed by Brendon & Jackson Jordan & Violeta, Chris & Aleisha, Skye-Blue & Jake and Sefa & Jessica.

Ashleigh & Amanda crack one of their pieces, but don’t think it will incur them a penalty. Malaan & Tina, however, snap one of their pieces in half and end up falling to 2nd last ahead of Jude & Shannon.

Teams can now drive to the Winton Truck Museum where they will sign-up for morning departures.

Teams depart in the morning, five minutes apart, in the following order: Shane & Deb > Brendon & Jackson > Jordan & Violeta > Ashleigh & Amanda > Skye-Blue & Jake > Sefa & Jessica > Dwes & Katherine > Jobelle & Rani > Holly & Dolor > Chris & Aleisha > Malaan & Tina > Jude & Shannon. However, Holly & Dolor decide to use the Salvage Pass to move into the first departure slot.

Teams must now fit two huge truck wheels onto a truck train. When properly installed, teams will get the next clue.

Shane & Deb are first to install their tires and open the next clue revealing the Detour: Pick or Polish. In Pick, teams will drive to Camden Station back in Longreach and collect and clean enough fresh wool to make a bale. They will then roll the bale to the farmer to receive their next clue. In Polish, teams will drive to the Longreach Solar Farm and clean 42 solar panels.

Shane & Deb, Brendon & Jackson and Ashleigh & Amanda choose the wool while Holly & Dolor, Sefa & Jessica and Jobelle & Rani choose the solar panels.

Shane & Deb maintain their lead and open the next clue directing them to the Pit Stop at Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame. The Cowboys are right behind them. But the married parents step on the Mat first and win a trip to Sea World. Brendon & Jackson settle for 2nd and Ashleigh & Amanda take 3rd.

Back at the truck museum, Jude & Shannon are still in last place. But as they leave, they notice that Jordan & Violeta have left their backpacks. The Mums think that is their chance. They choose wool while the dancing exes choose solar panels after going back to get their bags.

At the Pit Stop, Skye-Blue & Jake and Holly & Dolor finish as 4th and 5th. Jobelle & Rani are Team #6 and Sefa & Jessica are Team #7.

Malaan & Tina step on the Mat and Beau informs them they have to wait out a penalty of 10 minutes because of breaking the dinosaur tail. During that time, Chris & Aleisha check in as Team #8 while Dwes & Katherine take 9th.

Jude & Shannon have finished the wool Detour before Jordan & Violeta finish the solar panels and they are driving to the Pit Stop.

Jordan & Violeta mange to arrive at the Pit Stop before the Mums and check in as Team #10. Jude & Shannon look like they are running to the Mat. But Malaan & Tina’s penalty time is over and they can check in as Team #11.

That means Jude & Shannon are unfortunately last and eliminated.

Episode Thoughts

It was an okay episode. Not bad. Not the most amazing. But a mostly fun, rural (as rural as Australia can get) Leg.

So first, having Dwes & Katherine back is both okay and not. It makes sense since last Leg was a Non-Elimination Leg anyway. They skipped Leg 2, which is basically like them winning a First Class Pass. But when you put it that way, it doesn’t feel right that they just come back and Race without a penalty. Whereas Jude & Shannon get a penalty. I’m not sure how to make it more fair though. Should they also get a Sabotage Pass? Starting in last place really doesn’t mean much at the start of the Leg, even with slightly staggered times at the Longreach Airport.

Speaking of, it’s so strange to just have Jaskirat & Anurag enjoying a bath at the beginning and then just disappearing. It’s just weird. So since I’m not a fan of a First Class team skipping a Leg, I can’t be completely okay with Dwes & Katherine essentially skipping a Leg either. Especially when they were eliminated fair and square in the first Leg.

The Sabotage is essentially a Non-Elimination penalty. A random one though. A Speed Bump or a uniform penalty would be more fair. The Salvage though is much too powerful for a bottom two team. Getting to cut in line? What kinds of advantages will they have in the future? The Salvage advantage should really just go to the Non-Elimination Leg winner instead of the First Class Pass.

The Dunny Derby is a very fun task. I’ve never even heard of a dunny before this. Lol Wikipedia came in handy. It’s a great Australian task though. Certainly great for an international TAR (or TARPHDME lolol) to stage if ever one comes to Australia in the future.

One great aspect of it was that it had a nice hometown feel. The kind of homey small-town Leg that was a lot fun in early TAR Canada seasons, but feels so tired now. For TAR Australia, it’s a brand-new feeling. So that’s great and refreshing.

The dinosaur task was fine as an extra task. But I did wonder what was going to happen once it looked like it was sunset. Then I realized there was probably going to be an Hours of Operation. And that can be good or bad.

First about the dinosaur task though, I cringed at Holly & Dolor just copying other teams’ assemblies. Like Dolor said, there’s no rules about it. But that doesn’t make it any less sketchy. It just doesn’t feel good when teams take advantage of loopholes like that instead of doing the task on their own. Just as bad as TAR32’s hand holding. But even worse since Holly & Dolor just did it without asking. Teams shouldn’t have been allowed to do that. Those are the kinds of situations you want to foresee as a Leg designer and make sure not to allow it. Because it’s definitely not fun to watch. Let alone good for competition.

Not a fan of mid-Leg Hours of Operation. Sometimes, logistics forces that. But it really brings the Race to a halt in such an artificial way in the middle of the Leg. It almost negates everything that happens before it. But here, it’s quite the opposite. It further separated the teams. There’s a 55-minute difference between the first and last teams at the truck stop when teams could otherwise still be neck and neck without the staggered start times.

Especially when the truck task was very physical, there was just no chance for teams to catch up with only the Detour after. One advantage though is the trailing teams can watch the leading teams perform the task and observe what they did right or wrong. But that didn’t really seem to make much of a difference anyway.

The most annoying thing though was the guy at the truck stop delaying handing Jude & Shannon their clue. Like, THEY ARE IN LAST. HAND THEM THEIR CLUE! No time for jokes. And considering, if we are to believe the edit, Jude & Shannon were just seconds or a minute behind Malaan & Tina?

The Detour was pretty good. Not sure about the distances to each one. But just on tasks alone, I think it was a balanced Detour? Just straightforward, manual labor on both. But perhaps the solar panels were harder just because it was out in the sun whereas the wool was in a nice, shaded area. And I guess they proved it since the wool teams finished far ahead of the solar panel teams.

Overall, a solid Leg. Not the most memorable. Not too bad. Plenty of things to nitpick though.

My Subjective Team Rankings

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Jobelle & Rani keep moving up, so that’s great. Hope they continue on that track. Jude & Shannon were a fun team that kept fighting. And having to face probably the most absurd penalty in Amazing Race history, they still fought to stay in the Race and were a great inspiration.

Ashleigh & Amanda are definitely proving themselves and setting themselves up as a top contender. Not only have they been consistent, they’re moving up. So they are looking like they’ll be here for a very long time.

Malaan & Tina are also a fun team I hope does well. They’re Racing well, but can definitely step it up a little. Though they wouldn’t have been in danger this Leg had it not been for the penalty. Sefa & Jessica had another quiet Leg, but are hanging in there and right in the middle of the competition.

Shane & Deb are continuing to do well also. After the close finish last Leg and with the Super Sikhs out of the way, they were able to get that Leg win quite easily. A good win for them. Cowboys Brendon & Jackson are also in the same spot. They’re doing very well and could solidify a spot in the front too.

The siblings and the two couples blended together again this Leg. Other than Jordan & Violeta who had that little scare with the bags. The three teams are fine. But certainly not the most exciting of the bunch. I like Dwes & Katherine. But it just feels awkward having them back in the Race under these circumstances.

Holly & Dolar. They definitely have a place on the Race. We definitely need that villainous-ish type of character on the Race. And they certainly fit the bill. But what I didn’t like about them this Leg was their antics at the dinosaur. Just literally standing there looking and studying other teams’ skeletons like that was not a good look. And then Dolar’s cockiness about it and even mentioning cheating on exams was too much.

Jaskirat & Anurag were nonexistent this Leg, but are still in the Race. It’s just so weird.

Episode Quotes

Local: “When do you want me to start crackin’ the whip?”

Jackson: “What’s an anthropologist? They study ants.”

Jude: “Stop pumping my arm like you’re doing my blood pressure.”