Race Across The World 2026 - Thread 2

[LindorDoubleChoc]

Here we are continuing to watch, chat about and admire Race Across The World 2026, Sicily to Mongolia. Everyone welcome!

Link to thread 1 is here https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5510122-race-across-the-world-2026?reply=15225883.]]

I'm sorry I've had to start this probably a little early as I'm not watching live tonight (got home very late from work).

I thought the reunion programme was fascinating. All the production and planning is amazing, but of course they're not allowed to help in any way. Fascinating.
I loved the fact that Katie met Mark in Sri Lanka when they were both travelling!
Such lovely people.

The town they arrived at didn't look like there would be many places to stay, it was the back of beyond. If they paid off the taxi driver and he left them there they might have had trouble with onward transport the next day. At this point, they might have had some advice from the crew.

What I meant was what was referred to up thread that there was a home stay in the ‘wrong’ town as well, which is why the Australian guy sent them there. However, they told the production team they were going to town A but booked the taxi to town B. The production team then told the people in town A they were coming but didn’t have time to inform the home stay in town B. So when they got to town B they couldn’t stay at that home stay because they weren’t ready. But there was another one 4 hours away which would be enough time to prepare. But this is all supposition on my part.

I didn't pick up that there was a home stay in the town they arrived at but, as you say, it wasn't ready anyway. There would still have been the problem of the onward travel.

Someone up thread mentioned that there were two with the same town name on the page and that might be where the confusion came from.

What confused me was that the wrong town was clearly a dead end with no onward roads/transport links, so why didn't the Aussie guy, supposedly a professional tour guide, mention this to them? If it had had onward roads, surely they could have just continued from there, rather than working their way back to the original planned route, and losing a day. I'm inclined to think the Aussie guy was a bit of an idiot, and I'm not surprised Molly is still annoyed!

Yeah you would think he might have questioned their plan a little bit as in why go there you'll be stuck and have to back track home stay or no home stay. I don't think he was an idiot just a big vague.

For those who think they could have stayed there anyway, I don't think they could they had to backtrack anyway so they needed to get moving not waste any more time and use the taxi, they might have struggled to get another one.

i think the onward travel would have taken too long?

I've read this 3 times and still don't get it! My poor old brian. Gonna have to re-watch. Whatever actually happened, this was a slight failure by the Beeb because so many of us have been confused and distracted by it. And as it, arguably, altered the outcome of the race - they could have made it clearer.

Yes, I know it isn't clear because I don't quite get what actaully happened but I think they were going to a Jargalant that had a homestay but not the Jargalant that was expecting them.

This was the best series of all of them imho. Fascinating variety of countries and cultures, including ones that Brits rarely see/visit, likeable interesting and funny contestants, lack of mawkish focus on backstories. It was perfect!

From Facebook about Mark and Margo:
So pleased you both managed to finish. I was rooting for you! However, the show didn't give any indication how you managed to complete the last part of your journey, especially given you were desperately low on funds. We only saw you at the finish line. I'm curious as to how you managed it?

From
Margo Oakley
We managed to get a place in a shared Furgon from Shin Ider towards Hatgal which really helped because by that stage we had very, very little money left. Shared Furgon, soviet all terain vehicles..the bargain choice and race savers for us.

I wish we'd seen that!

Yes why didn’t they show it?

I come from a country with very remote towns and tbf, that’s not uncommon. The idea that the place they ended up was uniquely unconnected is very British/European - we find it weird and think people might have realised, but in a lot of places it’s not that remarkable!

So we could see the others sliding down a snowy hill in slow motion instead? I do so want to see more of the journeys and how the teams get by (little titbits like Molly saying she'd been making Andrew eat crisp sandwiches for six weeks should be expanded on).

I can't remember where I read this now but I think it is to stop someone gaming the system by earning lots of money doing jobs in the early legs so that they can get very spendy at the end getting taxis everywhere

That sounds fair enough. I think it might also stop any one couple getting way too far behind.

We rarely hear about the cost of accommodation or food in each country. The only costs they show is the transport and Margo's tasting menu! I would be curious to know how much a guest house is in Tbilisi or a dorm room in Uzbekistan. I wonder if they stock up their rucksacks at checkpoint with breakfast buffet goodies... like most of us do (got to love a stale pastry mid -afternoon!)

Molly must spend a lot of her time worrying about her father with his history of a heart attack

I thought about that when they were running up the snowy hill during the final leg.

Late reading this thread, after watching the final episode now

Interesting reading the comments from some people who really thought the producers were just sliding in the information about Andrew's heart attack late on because the assumed they were going to win so that's why they'd edited it like that!

Oooh no I did not know this

Oh wow

No she said the opposite, that she pointed to the right one