Race Across the World teases one team's tension
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Race Across the World returned for its fourth season on Wednesday (April 10), as five more teams competed to travel to various destinations without phones or flying, and on a tight budget with limited knowledge of the local areas and languages.
The contestants this time are: 20-year-old friends Alfie and Owen, mum and daughter duos Eugenie and Isabel as well as Sharon and Brydie, siblings Betty and James, and retired couple Stephen and Viv.
Each episode sees them try to reach a specific destination before the other teams, and whichever duo makes it their last each week can be eliminated. The winning team will have traveled all the way from Japan to Indonesia.
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The competition started in Sapporo in Hokkaido, far up in the North, with their destination in Nara City, near Kyoto and Osaka in the South. As well as planes, Japan's famously fast bullet trains were also off-limits, with the options being to go by boat, which is less complex but slower, or by land.
Alfie and Owen decided to get to Tokyo quickly, so they could use its transport links (and visit Mount Fuji), while Eugenie and Isabel decided to just wing it, as long as they completely avoided expensive Tokyo.
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After getting confused by a menu, Betty and James spent more than they wanted on food, while Stephen and Viv were taking their time, going to a hot spring and picking up some plant picking work in rural Honshu.
Disaster struck for Alfie and Owen as they lost their map, three days into their journey, and Alfie almost lost their all-important notebook as well. Tension already seemed to set in, as Owen woke up early and told the camera that he needed time away from Alfie due to his "scatty" nature. Thanks to a cancelled bus from Mount Fuji to Kyoto, they had to frustratingly backtrack to Tokyo.
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Isabel started to stress out as well, as she misread a bus table and had to fork out for a taxi to make their ferry, but relaxed when they realised the good time they were making.
She also made the effort to learn basic Japanese phrases, which impressed her mum and proved useful in asking for directions.
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Sharon and Brydie had been in the lead and the most budget-conscious for almost all the episode, but actually ended up being last.
Eugenie and Isabel were first, followed by the boys minutes later. Betty and James were an hour later, Stephen and Viv were an hour after that, while Sharon and Brydie were overall a whopping four hours behind the other mother-and-daughter duo.
Luckily for Sharon and Brydie, there was no elimination this week but trouble is certainly on the horizon for them unless they pick up the pace.
Race Across the World airs at 9pm on Wednesday nights on BBC One, and streams on iPlayer. A fifth season has been confirmed.
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