Introduction → Meet the Teams → Race Tracker → Leg 1 → Leg 2 → Leg 3 → Leg 4 → Leg 5 → Leg 6 → Leg 7 → Leg 8 → Leg 9 → Leg 10 → Leg 11 → Leg 12
Leg 22.09 – “I can’t taste myself anymore.”
For the 9th Leg of the Race, teams will hop on the Philippine Airlines A350 to take them from the British Virgin Islands to their next destination: Grenada!
Teams will begin the Leg at Fort George in St. George at 7:30am.
The first clue tells teams to find Christ of the Abyss. Teams will be able to make their way on foot to this statue where they will choose a car and drive themselves to Moliniere Bay.
Here, teams will find an underwater sculpture park and must dive in to search for their next clue amongst the sculptures. That clue reveals the Detour: Sugar High or Sugar Load.
For this Detour, teams must make their way to River Antoine Estate.
In Sugar High, teams will deal with sugar in high heat. Teams must participate in the boiling process where they will ladle thickened sugarcane juice from copper to copper at the correct time intervals. Then, teams will ladle cane syrup into a trough leading to a cooling tank. They will then collect wood to fuel the fireboxes in the distillery to receive the next clue.
In Sugar Load, teams will load newly arrived sugarcane on a cart and then roll it down the tracks to the mill. After unloading the sugarcane, teams must then fill their cart with bagasse and roll it to a marked area where it will be dried for use as boiler fuel. When all unloaded, teams will receive the next clue.
After the Detour, teams must make their way to the village of Tivoli where they will find the Road Block: Hit It.
Tivoli has a rich history in drumming and is the natural birthplace of the Grenada Drum Festival. For this Road Block, teams will learn the unique style of choreographed drumming and perform with the Tivoli drummers to receive the next clue.
Teams will now drive themselves to Douglaston Spice Estate. Here, teams will go on a tour learning about local spices. Teams are advised to pay close attention to what they will be learning.
And that is because at the end of the tour, teams will encounter a Double Road Block! Eyes or Ears.
For this Double Road Block, teams will need to identify the many different spices that make Grenada the “Spice Isle.” The team member who will use their “Eyes” will describe the different spices based on their touch and taste to their blindfolded teammate who will only be using their “Ears” to listen to those descriptions. Only the “Eyes” teammate will be able to touch and taste the different spices. They must describe the spices to their teammate who must memorize the descriptions as much as they can. The “Ears” teammate will then go into the next room, remove the blindfold and then try to correctly identify the different spices.
When teams have all spices correct, they will receive the next clue. And that clue points teams to Royal Mount Carmel Falls. Teams must swim to the waterfall to retrieve the clue.
And that clue directs teams to head to the Pit Stop waiting for them at La Sagesse Beach.
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
Now this is definitely a very full Leg. I wish Google scouting had produced such a full Leg in the British Virgin Islands. But of course real life scouting will be able to do that. Lol
First up, teams will be driving themselves again. But I’m not sure if we’d be able to get brand new 2023 Kia Sportages here to Grenada. So it’ll be just be regular local cars. Hehe.
First, a simple Route Marker which gets teams diving into the water. Haven’t done that yet this season. So it’s a good task at the frontend of this Leg.
The Detour should be a great physical task. Both sides of the Detour will be challenging. And we can expect a warm day. So that should exhaust teams even more. I think both sides of the Detour are well-balanced. Time consuming and physical. This would be a good Detour with more teams as well.
The Road Block is another performance task. But the drumming is a good part of local culture, so it will be great to feature here.
The highlight of the Leg though will definitely be this Double Road Block. It has become a TARPHDME favorite after first being inspired by the infamous TAR Canada 4 flower Road Block. It has showed up many times since first appearing on TARPHDME12. And in modified versions too. So I was excited to find an opportunity to do it here.
There was of course going to be a task about Grenada’s spices. So what a perfect task to highlight that. It should be difficult, challenging, frustrating. Very exciting.
And how about the potential drama if a team still has an Interchange! Technically, the “Eyes” person would have seen, touched and tasted the spices. So if they switch, they might have an easier time identifying them! DRAMA! Lolol
About the location though, apparently Douglaston Spice Estate is permanently closed now? Not sure. But on TARPHDME, anything is possible!
Anyway, Grenada is a beautiful destination and I am glad I was able to fit it and the British Virgin Islands on this route. Hopefully more Caribbean Legs in the future for TARPHDME!