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Leg 21.06B – “I might as well jump into the oven than sit out here in the sun.”
The SuperLeg continues as teams must pitch a tent at this pop-up campsite to stay in for the night. Once their tent is assembled, they can take a number to determine the order of departure in the morning.
As the sun rises, teams will depart five minutes apart in that order.
The next clue tells teams to drive themselves to Al Jarda.
Here, teams must feed a camel and prepare it for the traditional Al Ardha camel show. After they strap on a robotic jockey, the camels will line up and the teams will hop in a 4×4 with a camel trainer who drives along while shouting commands to their camel. When a team’s chosen camel has reached the finish line, they will receive the next clue.
Teams must now make their way to the souq in Nizwa where they will encounter the Detour: Date or Display. For both Detours, teams must find a delivery drop off point in the souq to find the items needed for each Detour choice.
In Date, teams must pick up two boxes of dates and head to the dates section of the souq where they must sort and then properly display the dates for sale.
In Display, teams will pick up ten pots and then find a local vendor who they will help set up shop. Following an example, teams must build a stand on which they must hang the ten pots of different shapes and sizes for display.
After the Detour, teams must then search the souq for the U-Turn Reveal Board and their next clue.
After checking in at the U-Turn, teams must now drive themselves to the town of Sur.
In this major shipbuilding town, teams must finish building a modified, miniature sambuk or ghanjah dhow and then row themselves to one of the nearby watchtowers to find their next clue. There is a limited number of clues at each watchtower. Along with their clue, teams must also pick up a sack of frankincense and take it back with them.
Teams must now deliver the frankincense to a vendor in the nearby souq of Sur to be given the next clue.
For the last place team at the SuperLeg Midpoint, they must pick up two sacks of frankincense and deliver it to two different vendors in the souq.
That clue directs teams to find the Bedouin camp near the town of Tiwi. Here, teams will find the Road Block: Who likes it hot?
For this Road Block, teams must dig amongst 120 sand dunes to find one of eight Omani underground ovens with a shuwa, a woven pouch with a meal of lamb wrapped in dried palm leaf. They can exchange the pouch for their next clue.
That clue reveals the Trigger Point for this Leg of the Race. If any team manages to dig up the U-Turn in one of the dunes, the U-Turn will be activated on the next Leg of the Race.
The clue also directs teams to the Pit Stop at the Bimmah Sinkhole. Teams must swim to the floating Mat in the middle of the water.
The first team to do so 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
This is a pretty simple, straightforward Leg. But having teams Race all day with self-driving over a long distance and then finishing with the frustrating Road Block out in the hot sun should make for some exciting drama and competition.
First, this is definitely not the most seamless SuperLeg since teams will essentially be camped out for 10-12 hours anyway. That’s the length of a regular Pit Stop. But it’s alright. We need a SuperLeg and this is a good spot for it.
The first task of the day is the camel racing. We make sure to pamper the camels first before they go out for their run. It’s a fascinating event and takes place early in the morning. So it’s a perfect task at this point in the Leg. Having teams ride along for the experience should be very interesting.
Next is a very typical Detour for any Middle Eastern visit: getting teams in a souq. Sorting dates has been recycled many times before. But it should be a tedious, time consuming task. The pot side of the Detour is interesting mainly for the building of the stand on which the pots will be hanging from. It’s a different kind of challenge.
Making this a forced U-Turn should also try and create some exciting last minute drama. With all the driving and the two physical tasks coming up, it’s possible to have U-Turned teams be able to catch up in the end. It would be a very dramatic moment.
Visiting Sur is just to get teams to drive a long distance and the going to the watchtowers is recycled from TAR9. I added the dhow building and rowing just for the extra challenge to it.
Finally, it would’ve made more sense to have this Road Block before the midpoint so the teams could eat the food while waiting overnight. But I wanted this exhausting task to be at the end of the Leg leading to an elimination. A cruel elimination, yes. But sometimes we need to have one of those on the Race, yeah? Hehe
Of course, it’s going to be a hot day after a long Leg. We could get some fireworks and meltdowns and maybe even *cringe* quitting. Who knows?
And the perfect Pit Stop would be cooling off at Bimmah Sinkhole. Another 8K UHD-worthy location!
Overall, this is a pretty good Leg on it’s own. But a challenging continuation of the Super Leg.