'Amazing Race' Speed-cap: Teams Couldn't Get Fired Up in Africa

The contestants went hunting for deadly insects near Africa's Kalahari Desert for this week's leg.

"Scorpion King Hunter" -- In this Road Block, Best friends Winnie (left) and Pam (center) follow the Bushmen through the Kalahari Desert in search of a scorpion and the next clue on "The Amazing Race."

Leg six of "The Amazing Race" sent the remaining teams more then 6,000 miles away from their controversial tour of Hanoi, Vietnam and landed them in Botswana, or as Mullet Man Chuck refers to it -- where "The Lion King" was made. (We're guessing after the hailstorm of criticism CBS and the series received last week, they're probably thanking their lucky stars that it wasn't a double-leg stay in Vietnam.)

After landing in Africa and racing to sign up for one of three charter flights, the racers were headed to Makgadikgadi Pans National Park in some very small planes through what seemed like fairly turbulent air. At the park, they hooked up with three legit Bushmen each. The barely clothed, blurred-butted Bushmen took one brave (or not in the case of Max, Joey, and Mona) soul out into the Kalahari to dig for a scorpion to capture and put in a mason jar. For a somewhat unexplained reason, the natives were putting the scorpions in their mouths before handing them over to players to manhandle. While country singer Caroline's crew peeped a lion and hightailed it up a tree deserting her and she managed to remain calm in what could have been a super dangerous situation, Joey was acting a fool, jumping around and declaring, "I'm only 21. I don't want to die." And Max is probably never going to live down being the solo glove wearer.

People had a good laugh at their expense on Twitter:

What they did not find amusing in the blogosphere though -- Katie's sarcastic dig about how the car smelled while they were carting their half-naked helpers to the Detour, where they had a choice between fire or fowl. In fire, teams had to ignite a fire with zebra poop, grass, and sticks in order to light the chief's pipe. In fowl, a snare had to be constructed the local way and then the team had to act like poultry while setting it off. While everyone else seemed to get a kick out of their new Kalahari buds (Bates serenaded them; the singers said they'd found new boyfriends; Joey planned to friend them on Facebook; Pam quipped that she was "smuggling Bushmen"), Katie rolled her eyes and dryly explained, "It smells really good in this car right now. Fragrance of Botswana."

Viewers called her out:

Back at the Detour, everyone chose fire except Pam and Winnie, who knew how hard it would be from watching a lot of TV, and Team Mullet. Chuck was pumped to have a challenge that utilized his particular skill set: He raised money in high school by setting snares and selling pelts at the fur exchange. (Of course he did!) The Hockey dudes, who are fully letting their flirt flag fly with the singers now, were the first and only to get a spark. They came in first, won trips to Thailand, and revealed that they and their body odor are getting stronger. They were followed at the pit stop by Pam and Winnie and Team Mullet.

About this time, everyone except Max and Katie switched tasks, and eventually the newlyweds followed suit as well. The roller moms seemingly finished just before the newlyweds but almost made the error of driving to Phil when the clue directed them to walk. Max and Katie were relieved to hear it was a nonelimination round, although judging by the comments, many folks watching were not.

"The Amazing Race" airs Sundays at 8 PM on CBS.