In what Beau describes a “world first,” The Amazing Race Australia 6 begins, again, with a second group of ten teams heading to the second Starting Line in Sydney.
Beau flags the teams off and they open the first clue telling them they will be flying to Marrakech, Morocco. Upon arrival, teams hop into taxis to take them to Jemaa el-Fnaa.
Church Friends Angel & Frankie are upset that “pink” Lawyer Cousins Kathy & Chace took their taxi.
Flamboyant Friends Sam & Alex run through the rain and arrive at the clue first. Teams must now stack a market cart with 40 pieces of traditional local pottery. They will follow a flagged path through the souk and deliver the pots to a shop. When the owner confirms their pots, teams will be given the next clue.
Crystal & Reem decide to do two trips of 20 pots each. When they get to the shop, they run into the Vegan Warriors Bren & Anja who are quite lost since they followed the flagged path before finding the clue. The Middle Eastern Mates point them in the right direction. But when they check-in with the shop owner, they are not even allowed to unload their pots as you must have all 40 at once.
Baru Mates Stuart & Glennon arrive at the shop with their 40 pots. And getting the thumbs up, they open the next clue revealing the Detour: Dash or Splash. In Dash, teams must head to Lantern Alley. Here, they must identify the four lanterns flashing Morse code and decipher the message to receive the next clue. In Splash, teams must locate six water sellers wearing yellow and red tassels. They must count all the brass cups on all the sellers and give them the correct number to receive the next clue.
Arriving next at the shop, Blonde Buddies Morgan & Lilli unload their pots, but get the thumbs down as they are missing some. That allows Memory Makers Heath & Toni and Angel & Frankie to move into 2nd and 3rd.
Flamboyant Friends Sam & Alex have already broken some pots when their cart tips over. And they almost break some more when they try passing Cop Couple Lauren & Steph, but bump into each other.
Kathy & Chace are 4th to finish followed by Sam & Alex, Lauren & Steph and The Mullets Sam & Stu. Crystal & Reem overcome their earlier mistake to finish the pots in 8th. Morgan & Lilli and Bren & Anja are the trailing teams.
On the other side of the market, the teams are struggling with finding the water sellers for the Splash Detour. When the Lawyer Cousins spot the red and yellow tassels, Chace is able to use his French skills to confirm who the sellers are. That clues the other teams in when they see them already counting.
All the teams have chosen Splash, but Heath & Toni are first to give the correct answer (71), followed by Crystal & Reem. They open the next clue revealing the Road Block: Who is best in a pickle? For this Road Block, teams must eat pickled lemon aged six months, one year and two years old. They will receive the next clue once they consume all lemon pieces on a plate. But because of Hours of Operation, teams must head to Hotel Cecil to sign-up for their order of departure in the morning.
Heath & Toni, Sam & Alex, Sam & Stu, Stuart & Glennon, Crystal & Reem and Angel & Frankie are the first ones to sign-up. After having been the first to figure out who the water sellers are, Kathy & Chace are 7th to sign-up followed by Lauren & Steph.
Bren & Anja can’t complete the Detour because the water sellers have already gone home so they must serve out a penalty in the morning.
Heath & Toni and Sam & Alex are the first to get started the next morning at 8am as they head to the lemon pickle souk. The other teams depart in three other groups, five minutes apart.
Heath and Alex start eating the lemons. Crystal, Angel, Stuart, Sam and Frankie arrive next.
With Heath struggling, Alex is first to swallow all the lemons with Sam and Crystal close behind. They open the next clue directing teams to find a tannery where they will hop into holes to dig out goat hides. After cleaning off some of the hair, they will lay them out to dry and be given the next clue.
Angel & Frankie are first to finish and open the next clue telling teams to head to the Pit Stop at Koutoubia Gardens. Kathy & Chace and Heath & Toni are next to finish the task with Crystal & Reem and Lauren & Steph close behind.
Meanwhile, Bren & Anja arrive at the tannery and the Vegan Warriors cannot bring themselves to do the task. They accept that they might get eliminated because of it, but they decide not to complete it. They get the Pit Stop clue and head over after serving out their 30-minute penalty.
Over at the Mat, Angel & Frankie arrive and Beau officially checks them in as Team #1. An emotional Kathy & Chace claim 2nd with Lauren & Steph in 3rd. Crystal & Reem are Team #4 and Heath & Toni are 5th.
Sam & Alex leave the tannery in 7th, but check-in at the Mat in 6th as Morgan & Lilli get lost on the way to the Pit Stop.
On the way to the Pit Stop, Bren & Anja find an injured bird on the ground and make sure it gets care and won’t be killed.
Sam & Stu step on the Mat with a new dog friend to claim 7th. Stuart & Glennon and Morgan & Lilli are Teams 8 and 9.
That means Bren & Anja are last and eliminated.
Episode Thoughts
Okay, first can we just acknowledge that TAR Australia’s split Starting Line is not a “world first.” HaMerotz LaMillion did it first back in 2014.
It’s great to have a night Leg and with some rain. But not if it means an Hours of Operation in the middle of it. That alone ruins the Leg design here. There was still some shuffling in the morning. But having mid-Leg halts should stay back in the early days of TAR.
Anyway, a pots on cart delivery task is always good for some fun times. A good Active Route Marker. But probably could’ve been one side of a Detour too.
The Detour was kind of meh. The Morse code lanterns is actually an excellent task and it’s too bad none of the teams chose to do it. Probably would’ve been a great Road Block instead (with a stipulation that there would be no answer sharing of course! Lol). The counting side of the Detour would be an okay extra task. The better water seller task would’ve been having teams actually selling some water themselves.
I wonder if there were COVID considerations in deciding what task to do. But I don’t really think it mattered considering teams were running around anyway.
With the Road Block, it should’ve been identifying the age of the lemons instead. Otherwise, just make this an Active Route Info task. (Why are all the tasks on this Leg better as Active Route Info tasks? Lol) The spice task from yesterday was a better Road Block-worthy task.
The tannery task would be better as a Detour or Road Block. I certainly remember TAR3 and TAR25’s tasks. TAR3 was a needle in a haystack Road Block which had teams digging through all the smelly pools for a clue. TAR25 had teams cleaning the skins more and then delivering bundles somewhere in the souk. TAR25’s was probably the best task.
Again with the 30 minute quitting penalty? What if Bren & Anja had survived? I don’t think that would be fair, to be honest.
Overall, an okay Leg. Like, parts of the Leg on their own were good or could’ve been better. But put together, it was a bit of a sloppy Leg. Definitely not as tight as yesterday’s. The teams carried the slack though.
My Subjective Team Thoughts
Another good group of teams. Would’ve been great to have them on their own season rather than have them get smashed together with the other group. But oh well.
I don’t have a clear favorite like I did with the first group. But I like the competitiveness of the teams here. I think you could make a case for most of the teams.
I like Kathy & Chace and Crystal & Reem the most I think? Sam & Stu and Sam & Alex seem like fun teams.
I expect Angel & Frankie, Heath & Toni, Stuart & Glennon and Lauren & Steph to be contenders. But you can’t count out the “Blonde Buddies” Morgan & Lilli either.
Bren & Anja seem like nice people, but it’s probably best that they’re eliminated now because for sure there will be other tasks they might not want to complete.
Episode Quotes
Local: “Harry Potter thank you for now coming.”
Chace: “The water sellers are humans!”
Lilli: “I can’t wait to see the pottery man.”
Alex: “I don’t want to spew.”
Toni: “It’s just a lemon. It’s just a nasty lemon.”
Stuart: “It was like sucking the saliva out of my mouth.”
Sam: “It’s hard to find a marked arrow when there’s Dior bags in front of me.”
Angel: “Everything was disgusting. Everything!”
Alex: “I’m in the mood to slaughter nothing.”
Beau: “It’s okay to cry.”
Alex: “You just got it in my mouth.”
Beau: “I wouldn’t mind a burger now they’re gone.”