Race Across the World - would YOU want to take part? [DotD 28.4.2020]

[whole diary]

[grahame]

P.S. Did anyone watch "Race across the World"?   Did anyone else think "Wish I was there"?   The BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) are looking for contestants for the next series.  Recording by Studio Lambert - the excellent company who did "Four in a Bed".

The next series has now finished showing - from Mexico City to Ushuaia in Argentina.   Five couples took park, two dropped out along the way, and three made it all the way.  The headline, from The BBC describe it as

The 15,000-mile race took the contestants from Mexico City to the most southerly city in the world, Ushuaia in Argentina, with a budget of £1,400.

It's somewhat more complex than the headline - stated rules are that the contestants cannot fly.  But then there are other rules and caveats - a requirement to route through certain checkpoints 'headlines'. No mobile phones. All the contestants choose to stop along the way and see sights; I'm sure there's a rule there to make good TV.  And they have to work their passage - stop and take jobs which have been pre-researched ("set up"s) again to show elements of the country and far from what I would describe as real work. Each pair has a crew with them which must change the real metrics in a way we don't see. We also don't see all the preps of vaccinations and visas. Then there's something about having to reach checkpoints on foot - for example, the silly business of running up to the hotel at Ushuaia from the bus stop, when any 'sane' individual would have taken a taxi, for example. But having pointed out those artificial elements, the show was fun to watch, and (I'm sure) life changing for the contestants, and in a positive way; each of them has grown whether or not they won, and not limited to the three couples who finished.

The first race - from London to Singapore - aired a year ago, and made me think "Wish I was there". It lead to very serious consideration of "do I apply" and corollaries "who would want I want to travel with", "would he / she want to", "would we be fit enough", "would we be interesting enough", "would we get on with each other and develop", "would we be able to take the time out of our lives to take part" and "would we be photogenic and interesting enough to make good TV".  Virtually every one of those elements was answered positively (or at least not negatively) but I personally failed to pass "would I be fit enough" and the potential project / application was not developed further.

Hindsight - is  marvellous.  Rest assured, correct decision, I think, not to apply.  This series was dominated by long distance bus journeys across a continent with few railways, with overnight buses as regular sleeping quarters for the contestants.  Not my best enjoyment, and (further) the very thing that would test my stamina - which was the symptom of my health concern.

Five years ago - I would have "gone for it" ... but opportunity passed.  I really don't think there will be a recording this autumn.   Next year - alas, my lack of stamina is permanent, and "Race Across the World" is not on my bucket list of things to (re)do.

* Would forum members wish to take part?

* Who would you pair up with, and why?

* Where would you hope to be sent?

[CyclingSid]

I thought at present we were limited to Race across (or round) the Garden.

[Thatcham Crossing]

I enjoyed it, although the climax - with the 2 teams racing to a hilltop within 20 seconds of each other - did seem a bit contrived.

Great gesture by the winners though to donate at least half of the £20k to charity - after seeing favella kids in Brazil.

Jen from Reading annoyed me a bit at times though!

The other thing that struck me was how few (if any?) long distance railways there are in South America (unless they were too expensive to use) and how many buses there are!

[grahame]

I enjoyed it, although the climax - with the 2 teams racing to a hilltop within 20 seconds of each other - did seem a bit contrived.

Great gesture by the winners though to donate at least half of the £20k to charity - after seeing favella kids in Brazil.

Totally agree that it's a great gesture and good on them.  I do worry about charitable gestures doing things that governments should be doing. However, let me just raise that comment as a small flag here - I do not want to detract from that pair of contestants.

I wonder what the show's total budget was.

Jen from Reading annoyed me a bit at times though!

Ah - reality TV highlights facets of people and leaves them open to skewed personal criticism.  Although forum  'norm' discourages personal criticism, where someone - and the includes all the contestants - put themselves in the limelight, that 'norm' is relaxed by their choice. Much of the show is about personallities, and part of the selection procedure for contributors is to find personalities who will generate ratings  .

The other thing that struck me was how few (if any?) long distance railways there are in South America (unless they were too expensive to use) and how many buses there are!

The rail network of South America is overviewed at https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/6325/1/S0700313_es.pdf (but, be aware, this text is over 10 years old)

The railway infrastructure of the South American region presents a network design for a purely exporting economic model, according to the type of economic system prevailing in the first half of the last century.

Due to the absence of integration policies, investments in railway infrastructure were channeled mainly on lines that provide access to overseas ports.

Within this scenario, however, as a result of government decisions, significant investments were made in railway infrastructure at the time, for regional integration, especially in the Southern Cone, many of them abandoned and others in a precarious state and with obsolete technological level. An example is the railway link between Argentina and Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay.

The current rail road transport network shows significant restrictions in infrastructure for intra-regional cargo transport (national as well as international) and presents the greatest weakness of the system. On average the density of railway infrastructure in the sub-region is one of the lowest in the world, although the region has a relatively high density of navigable rivers compared to other regions.

The railway infrastructure and the operating systems have been restructured and reformed in the last ten years. However, the low infrastructure quality of the network restricts the use of trains for the growing demand of the economies. The condition of the network limits the load capacity and speed limits. Although much of the network has passed into private hands, it has been difficult for concessionaires to carry out sufficient investments to overcome deficiencies in infrastructure, or public policies have not been effective in generating sufficient incentives for this to occur. Until now, multimodal regulations and links to other means of transport are lacking, especially with river transport.

Here's a map from that report (recoloured to make rail clearer, and I suspect the projection compresses the southern end)



So ...
- few railways
- those that do exist not going where the contestants were going
- poor condition, slow and infrequent passenger trains if any
Noting the map is out of date, and a line shown does NOT confirm a passenger train!

There are metro systems in some South American cities:
http://www.projectmapping.co.uk/Europe%20World/southamericatrai.html
But those fail to be going the same way / distance that the contestants were going.

[grahame]

Just watched the re-union; seeing all the competitors getting on so well at the stopping points in spite of the toughness of the competition.  Brought back our fortnight of "Four in a Bed" madness - competition on the screen and (for three of the four couples) friendship off camera. Still didn't photograph the crew ...

Wonder if there will be a race for next year ...