Amazing Race 14

Episode Four:
It Was Like a Caravan of Idiots!

Previously, nine teams raced from Salzburg, Austria to Bran, Romania…missed connections…wrong paths…moving Gypsy’s…lost fanny pack…impaling frames…and finally, the elimination of the Married Couple.

Phil tells us that the teams had their mandatory rest period in Bran, Transylvania, Romania, home of the Bran Castle, the one time residence of Vlad the Impaler. He refers to the Vila Panoramic as an ‘old world cottage’, but from the pictures it actually looks quite modern.

So the teams at this point have been racing for about six days, and have covered somewhere around 7,700 miles. The first team to arrive at the pit stop, the Father and Son, arrived at 10:49 AM, and therefore will leave at 10:49 PM. There was 4:25 separating the first and last teams to arrive at the pit stop, so the Lawyers who arrived as 1:30 PM, departed at 1:30 AM. As the teams are leaving the pit stop we do not hear how much money they get for this leg of the race.

Route Info: Hydroelectric Dam, Krasnoyarsk, Russia

Phil tells us that teams must now make their way by taxi back to Bucharest, and then fly to Krasnoyarsk Russia by way of Moscow. Once there, they must find there way to the hydroelectric dam which is shown on the Russian 10 Ruble note.

It appears that sufficient taxis are available to drive each team from Bran back to Bucharest. There are two scenes during the cab ride that are worthy of comment. The first is when one of the Cheerleaders looks at the ruble note and says “Pretty powerful beavers must have made that dam,” which is almost worthy of being an episode title (although the one chosen this week is very good). The second is when the Stuntmen borrow a cell phone from their cab driver, and manage to call the cab with the Cheerleaders who pretend to be a Lufthansa representative. I really chuckled when one of the indistinguishable Stuntmen commented, “I’m talking to an American.”

In the end, the number of flights from Moscow to Krasnoyarsk, Russia will be a natural bottleneck, but the reverse is true about flying from Bucharest to Moscow: there are a large variety of routes, including direct flights. In the end, teams get to Moscow by way of Frankfurt and Munich, Germany, Sophia Bulgaria, and Istanbul Turkey. I will use Frankfurt and Istanbul as proxies for all teams travel to Moscow.

Lufthansa flight 3417 leaves Bucharest, Romania (OTP) at 6:15 AM and arrives in Frankfurt am Main, Germany (FRA) at 7:55 AM. Flight 3184 leaves Frankfurt (FRA) at 10:35 AM, arriving in Moscow, Russia (DME) at 3:50 PM. This flight costs $1,202 for two and covers 2,167 miles in 8:35 (with connections).

The problem with this route is that Expedia lists no flights between Moscow, Russia (DME-Domodedovo) and Krasnoyarsk, Russia (KJA-Yemelyanovo), this means that the teams that went through Frankfurt and Munich likely had to use the subway or taxi to transfer between the airports. DME is about 20 miles Southeast of Moscow, SVO is about the same distance in the Northwest. By cab this transfer probably took ninety minutes or more, and cost 1500 rubles (approximately US$50 according to Google’s convert function).

Turkish Airlines flight 1444 leaves Bucharest, Romania (OTP) at 10:50 AM and arrives in Istanbul Turkey (ITS) at 12:15 PM. Flight 1415 leaves Istanbul (IST) at 1:35 PM arriving in Moscow Russia (SVO) at 5:40 PM. This route covers 1,379 miles, costs $1,293 for two people, and takes a total time of 5:50 (with connections).

Aeroflot flight 779 leaves Moscow (SVO) at 8:55 PM, arriving in Krasnoyarsk (KJA) at 5:40 AM (the next day). This flight only costs $382, and covers 2,068 miles in 4:45.

This map shows the route from Bran, to Bucharest, and onto Moscow and finally, Krasnoyarsk, Russia


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Krasnoyarsk lies along the Enisey river—one of the most beautiful and powerful rivers of Siberia. The history of Krasnoyarsk begins in 1628 when it was founded by the Cossack Andrey Dubensky. It has long been a transportation and cultural center of Siberia. Wikipedia has a pretty complete look at the city.

On thing that I was curious about is how far north is the city, in part because it kind of reminded me of Edmonton? Well Krasnoyarsk is at 56o North, Edmonton is 53o, Juneau is also at 56o (but moderated by the Pacific) and Fairbanks 64o.

The dam is about 20 miles upstream from the city, and as a result of the dam, the river never freezes as it runs through the town. The Siberian Tourist Web site has good information on the dam and the surrounding area.

The Stuntmen, the Cheerleaders, and the Sisters are the only teams that catch the first flight from Moscow, but the dam becomes a minor bottleneck, as the teams have to wait until the dam opens at 8:30 AM to get the next clue.

Route Info: Church of Saint Innokenty

The Siberian Tourist Web site (above) has a picture of the church (scroll down), which is in Ovsyanka village. Here is their description: “This is where very famous and talented Russian writer Victor Astafiev lived and die in 2001. He sponsored building of an excellent small wooden church in his home-village. Nowadays his name is very important in Russian literature and culture. Visiting Ovsyanka is also nice opportunity to see a life of Siberian village and traditional old houses.”

It is here that they will find their next clue. This map shows the location of the airport, the dam, and the village.


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Detour: Stack or Construct

For this detour, Phil tells us that the teams must do one of two things that locals do to protect themselves against bitter Siberian winters.

In ‘Stack’ teams must stack a cord of wood in a traditional method. This isn't too hard, but there is a lot of wood, and if they are not careful the wood pile could fall and the team would have to start over. Once all of the wood is stacked, they will get their next clue.

In ‘Construct’ teams must make a set of shutters and install them on a house with the yellow-red-yellow Race marker and a sign that read:

‘ОТРЕМОНТИРОВАТЬ
REPAIRS NEEDED’

Once the repairs are made, they will get their next clue.

Teams struggle to stack the wood, without knocking down their pile or an adjacent ‘sample’ pile. While building the shutters doesn’t appear to be too complex, teams struggle to find the house needing repairs, and as they walk down the street caring shutters aimlessly we get this episodes tag line: “We look like a caravan of idiots.”

Route Info: Museum of the Novel ‘The Last Bow’

The route info clue reads:

Make your way to the
Museum of the Novel
“The Last Bow” and
enter through the
marked door.

Caution! U-Turn Ahead!

Again the previous Siberian Tourism site discusses the museum. ‘The Last Bow’ does not show up in searches of most sites (such as Amazon), but Wikipedia lists a book called the "The Last Tribute."

So, this is the first of only two detours that will appear along the Race, but there is a new twist, teams can now detour another team without revealing who detoured them (a blind detour). This appears to be an attempt to get teams to actually use the detours, in the past teams were reluctant to use this tactic against a competitive team.

So the Mother and Son detour the Dating Couple, which means that the Dating Couple has to return to the detour and complete the side of the task that they did not already do—meaning they have to do both ‘Stack’ and ‘Construct’.

Route Info: Bobrovy Log Park

Teams must now make their way to the Bobrovy Log Park. The Bobrovy Log Park is a recreation area that in addition to the bob sled ride, hosts a ski area and zip line. Once they get to the park, they will get their next clue.

Road Block: Who’s Ready to Speed Read?

A roadblock is a task…oh yeah, Phil’s dropped that too. But one team member still has to complete a three mile bobsled (rollercoaster) run at speeds up to 55 miles per hour in under four minutes. Oh, yeah, and while they are hanging on for dear life, they have to remember the letters that they will see hanging on signs along the course.

Once a team member has the seven letters they must arrange them to spell the name of a famous Russian author: Chekhov.

Seems like the teams might have done better on this task if they were asked to spell the name of the Star Trek character.

This leads to another complaint of mine, and a back reference to the ‘Hay Bale Unrolling Sisters’ who are the epitome of a team not letting a task beat them. If you are on the Race, and you get a task like this then keep in mind that standing around and complaining in frustration won’t solve the problem. Attack the task, there are only so many arrangements of the letters, but moving them around into different combinations is better than standing around waiting for some form of divine inspiration.

Route Info: Krasnoyarsk Theater (of Musical Comedy)

Once the team member has solved the name puzzle, teams must make their way by taxi to the Krasnoyarsk Theater. As this will be the pit stop we get the warning that the last team to arrive may be eliminated.

The Flight Attendants (Christie and Jodi) are the first to arrive at the pit stop, and they each win a motorcycle. The Sisters appear to be a close second. The Lawyers are third, the Mother and Son are fourth, the Cheerleaders are fifth, the Father and Son sixth and the Stuntmen are seventh.

But the Stuntmen were unable to pay their cab driver for the day’s travels, and this is almost as bad as when teams had to beg for money from the locals when they arrived last on a non-elimination leg. There are penalties in the race for a variety of problems, and when a team cannot pay, then someone from the race (a camera person for example) should pay the difference, and then the team on arriving at the pit stop should have to face a penalty, say an hours wait before they check in.

But there is no such rule, so the Dating Couple (Amanda and Chris) are eliminated.

Next Week: The Russian Adventure Continues…

…with an example of why long underwear might not be a bad thing to pack for the Race.