"The Amazing Race 17" [4] Trivia Quiz

Answer: Russia

In Leg 7, teams departed from their sixth Pit Stop outside St. Isaac Cathedral in Saint Petersburg, Russia and embarked on a series of tasks around the same city. Arriving just before sundown the night before, the seven teams waiting there continued on their race early the next morning and were told to take a taxi to Avtovo Circus in the city.

Here, teams would need to wait for the big top to open to rip open their next clue. At this point, all eight teams were bunched up.

Answer: Ten

At the Antovo Circus, the seven remaining teams needed to open up their Detour clues and pick a task. In this choice, teams could either take 'Circus Band' or 'Circus Clown'. In 'Circus Band', teams needed to learn how to play a traditional Russian folk song on the accordion (which sounded like the "Tetris" theme song) and perform its three parts correctly to receive their clue.

In 'Circus Clown', teams went into the big top to learn how to spin plates. When the teams could successfully spin ten plates on different poles at the same time, they would be able to receive their next clue. Gary and Mallory and Nat and Kat completed 'Circus Band' while the others finished 'Circus Clown'.

Answer: The Hermitage

After finishing the Detour, teams began a series of clues dubbed a 'Russian mystery'. This began with taking a taxi to Bank Bridge, a city crossing with four gold-winged creatures guarding its sides. Once there, teams were instructed to head on foot (without a taxi guiding them) to 1 Vladimirsky Prospekt Tower where one member from each team (two at a time) could go to the top of the tower to search for their next destination, which would be denoted by a tiny model of the Church on Spilt Blood.

Heading there on foot, teams would find their next clue and solve the mystery.

Answer: Nick

Finding the Church on Spilt Blood, teams were given a riddle leading to the resting pace of Peter the Great, Peter and Paul Fortress. Upon finding the Gorodki courts, teams found the Road Block task which required that one member of each team play and complete three rounds of Gorodki, a game akin to bowling made popular by Russians.

When the players hit the pins off the targeted area three times, they received their next clue. Nat, Brook, Michael, Stephanie, Thomas, Gary, and Nick completed this task.

Answer: Michael and Kevin

In the end of the leg, teams needed to race on foot from the Gorodki courts through the fortress to Naryshkin Bastion where their seventh Pit Stop would be waiting. Here, Nat and Kat placed first (for the third time during the race) winning themselves $5,000 each for their victory.

In the end, Michael and Kevin came in sixth, but were forced to take two thirty-minute penalties for utilizing taxis at points in the Russian mystery when they weren't supposed to. Chad and Stephanie, while also taking a thirty minute penalty, were able to check in just after them and took the sixth place position (they would take their penalty at the start of the next leg). Michael and Kevin became the fifth team eliminated from the race.

Answer: Muscat

Beginning the eighth leg of the race at Peter and Paul Fortress in Saint Petersburg, Russia, teams were told to head to the airport to fly four thousand miles to the Middle Eastern city of Muscat, Oman. Upon their arrival after a full day of flying, teams were told to drive themselves through the city to a fort known as Burj Al Mubkharah overlooking the area where they wold be given an iron ingot with their time engraved on it.

This would be their departure time the next morning at which point they would be able to ascend the hillside to the tower and receive their clue.

Answer: 'Magic' Lamps

After collecting their clue from Burj Al Mubkharah, teams were told to drive themselves through Oman to the tallest mountain in the country, Jebel Shams. There, a driver would take them on a treacherous drive to the top of the mountain and one person from each team would complete a harrowing Road Block. For this task, the selected team member needed to rappel down the side of Jebel Shams and, when they descended five hundred feet, search a nearby ledge of the mountain for one of only a few 'magic' lamps out of hundreds for one containing a ring.

When they handed this in they could carry on with the leg. Chad, Jill, Vicki, Claire, Nat, and Mallory finished this task.

Answer: All of these teams

After the Road Block, teams needed to drive themselves to the town of Nizwa to locate a large stack of books in the middle of an intersection. Here, teams could climb to the top and find their Detour task. This would be the Detour task for this leg of the race.

In this one, all six teams chose 'Water Table' in which they needed to use motors and hoses from an old, underground well and pump water into a tanker truck to deliver it somewhere in the nearby town. When they hooked up the water to the proper house they would receive their next clue.

Answer: Chickens

In the alternate Detour task, 'Wedding Table', teams needed to purchase the proper ingredients for a local soup which they would need to prepare and they also needed to collect twenty-five chickens from a nearby market. When they delivered this soup to a local wedding they would receive their clue from the bride and groom. Rather, they would have done this had any teams attempted the task. After the Detour, teams were told to head to one of the country's largest markets, Muttrah Souq where they received a container of Frankincense to be delivered to a shop owned by Ali Baba.

This would result in their next clue.

Answer: Gary and Mallory

After a long leg, Jill and Thomas stepped on the mat in first but needed to face a thirty minute time penalty for an earlier altercation of the rules. As a result, Chad and Stephanie (who got engaged at the start of the leg) snagged their first first place win of the race, winning themselves a trip for two to Belize. Honeymoon, much?
After getting lost for most of the day, it was Gary and Mallory who arrived late in the day (after dark) and became the sixth eliminated team on the mat at Muscat's Al Alam Palace.