Amazing Race 10 - Episode 9

I made it home quite early and was able to watch the show in its entirety after watching "60 Minutes" tribute to reporter Ed Bradley who had died the previous week.

The Nov. 12, 2006 episode
On the 4th largest island in the world (says the narrator Phil), Dustin and Kandice were the first to leave at 2:56a. The new task is to fly to Helsinki, Finland (HEL) where they had to find the coffee house.

They then showed a Boeing 737 taking off from some airport, then showed an Airbus A340 taking off; I could not really tell which airliner it was.

They were all given tickets to Paris, France as flights were limited, and then they could get to Helsinki after that. However, they did not have to use those tickets; they could also make their own arrangements. The flight left to Paris left at 9:40p. I think this was on Air Madagascar’s Boeing 767-300 service. There is an Air France flight, but that was just after midnight.

Tyler and James left at 3:06a.
Ron and Kimberly 3:14a.
Edwin and Godwin left at 3:24a.
All teams received $265 for this leg of the trip; this perhaps means they have a lot of traveling to do.

The blondes were looking for other travel arrangements at the airport when they were joined by James and Tyler and then Rob and Kim showed up as well
Their inquiries had yielded a routing going through neighboring Johannesburg, South Africa (JNB) then connecting to Helsinki to arrive at 10:20a.

Lyn and Karlyn were the last to leave at 3:55a and ended up catching up the others and barely caught the flight after talking to the person in charge to get them a ticket for the flight at 4:55a for the 5:00a departure. The others were not too happy when they showed up.

I was still unsure of the exact routing, but Phil did explain that they flew first to Johannesburg to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (ADD) to Frankfurt, Germany (FRA) and then to Helsinki.

They were initially shown boarding a Boeing 737 on Air Madagascar which was parked at the hard stand on the ramp. Then they showed an Airbus A340 taking off and finally showing a Lufthansa German Airlines (LH) Boeing 737 landing in what I guess is Helsinki.

The teams would have flown Ethiopian Airlines’ Boeing 757-200 to Addis Ababa, and then I’m guessing Lufthansa’s Airbus A340 to Frankfurt via Khartoum in the Sudan, then a Boeing 737 from Frankfurt to Helsinki arriving the next day after they departed Madagascar.

Now had they taken the 9:40p flight to Paris, they would have arrived in Helsinki at 11:35a as opposed to their journey through four countries arriving at 10:20a.

Rob and Kim were arguing again as they drove to the café in Helsinki. The teams found the computers at Kapelli's café where they all got messages from their families:
Tyler's mom
James' sisters Kandice's mom
Dustin's family

The owner of the café gave them their next clue which was to make their way to Soppeernhaul (sp) school. To do this they had to take a train and car for a total journey of 125 km

Next Erwin arrived and listened to their message
Erwin's girlfriend was on the message and then their mother and sister
Last to arrive was Rob and Kim who listened to Kim' mom and dog give their message.

Lyn and Karlyn kids’ gave them their message as they cried while listening/viewing it.
Edwin and Godwin had trouble finding the train station.

They all were on the same train to Tampere.

Dustin and Kandice & James and Tyler got two cabs that were waiting
Rob and Kim begged on Kim's knees to get ahead of someone.

Lyn and Karlyn just jumped ahead of everyone in the queue and stole a cab
Edwin and Godwin stayed in line and waited; complaining that good guys finish last.

Once at the school they had a Detour
Swamp This - trudge a muddy field in skis
Swamp That - slog through an obstacle course in the mud

Swamp This – The Blondes
Finally Edwin and Godwin got a cab and were now on their way.

Swamp This – The Black girls
Rob and Kim got dropped at the wrong school
Tyler and James did Swamp That
Lyn and Karlyn did Swamp This as well; although they’ve never been on skis before
Swamp That - Rob and Kim
Swamp That - Edwin and Godwin

Once completed, they had to travel by trains to Turku then to Lojya and then take a tram into a mine to get their next clue.

James and Tyler were first then Dustin and Kandice
then Rob and Kim
the Lyn and Karlyn
then Erwin and Godwin
The Blonds passed James and Tyler and took the 3:11p train. Only the Blondes plus James and Tyler got on the first train. Rob and Kim just missed it and have to wait for the next train. Rob was pissed. An hour later they got a train.

Edwin and Godwin met a guy that works for the mining company on the train and he helped them with directions. Basically all the teams asked for directions
Rob and Kim so hates the Black girls

James and Tyler found the mine first, then the Blondes, as they have only one tram, the Blondes had to wait.

Edwin and Godwin needs to get it together and quit waiting for people; after all this is a race and it is everyone for themselves.

The next clue was a Road Block - ride a bike down a steep incline and search for a piece of limestone that has their clue in the town of Lohua; a mining town.

James and Tyler were the first to complete the task
Drive to the Olympic stadium in Helsinki is the next clue
The blonds were right behind them.

Edwin, Godwin, Lyn and Karlyn all arrived the same time so they took the same tram down. Ron and Kim got lost once more and continue to argue
Finally they found the place.

Rob caught up pretty good as he rode pretty hard.
Godwin came up first, then Rob, then Karlyn
they all got on the train to come back up to the surface.

The blondes asked for help and followed a guy, meanwhile at the stadium James and Tyler could not find the flag that marked the door to enter; once they found it, they had to go to the top of the Olympic Tower and perform one more task; rappel down the tower face first; so I think this will continue next week I'm sure.

Tyler was first down; James is afraid of heights though; all three teams arrived at the same time.

The next clue for James and Tyler says "Keep Racing..."
Next week, they go into battle...