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NSW floods thwart France’s not-so amazing race

Filming of a French reality show in rural New South Wales this week hit a road block they didn't expect: floods.

Filming of a French reality show in rural New South Wales this week hit a road block they didn’t expect: floods.

14 teams on Pekin Express, similar to The Amazing Race, were racing towards an overnight pit stop at Lightning Ridge, unaware of road closures and flash flooding.

SES officials who were forced to redirect the series and battle with competitors who “would not take no for an answer when told about the risks”.

News Limited reports a French pair burst into the Gunnedah Tourist Information Centre yesterday, demanding urgent directions and causing chaos for staff. All making perfect drama for the cameras, presumably.

The 45 day race sees contestants competing with just one euro per day per person, with a prize of  100,000 Euro. Contestants, who are allowed to hitch-hike between stops, were also begging for lifts from locals.

So far the teams have raced through Eumundi, Noosa, Byron Bay and Tamworth.

In Tenterfield one local said, “They were in an awful panic but it only took them about 10 minutes to flag down another car to take them on to Tamworth.”

In Casino another local added, “Apparently there was some confusion as the contestants thought they were looking for an actual casino rather than the town.”

The local Lightning Ridge mayor reckons if the teams made it they were likely to be trapped.

“They might have to be in Walgett or Lightning Ridge for some time,” Gustavus Murray said.

But the pressure is on for seasoned racers, all of whom have raced in previous editions, with Australia to include their final pit-stop.

Source: Northern Star

3 Responses

  1. Isn’t the duty of care on the showmakers to call it off when there is a natural disaster, lives are more important than a silly game. How would it look if one of these people died because the show runners had no idea there were floods, put the game on pause somewhere safe & try again in a few weeks or go elsewhere.

  2. hah that’s umm, amazing. Like to the point it would upstage any “hiccup” to ever befall The Amazing Race.

    (bonus “boo” for all The Amazing Race’s trips to Australia being tourism board orchestrated set pieces)

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