The first leg of the stage involves hopping into a fishing boat on the edge of the lake and rowing two miles to a nearby mine yard. The first challenge starts with a series of THs from football player Robert and Kari. Robert calls upon the cliché: It's the 4th quarter in the biggest game of their lives with one minute left on the clock, he says. But how many points are we down, Robert? Do we need a field goal or a touchdown? What down is it? Do we have any timeouts left? Is the other team in a prevent defense? You've really left us with no concept of what the situation is, Robert. Kari is less vague. She reminds us again that she's the only girl left in the competition and is keeping up with football players and a guy who has scaled Mount Everest. It's, like, crazy! The teams get into their boats which cues Ike reminding us for the umpteenth time that being off his feet is a good thing. Being in a boat goes very badly for half of the teams, though. Team Gay Angst's boat is literally falling apart. AJ's oar comes loose when one of the outriggers (I had to look up what those things are called) breaks. To AJ, this is naturally the end of the world. He instructs Ryan to turn with his oar to face the front of the boat so they can both row in sync manually. In a bit of subtle comedy, or at least I found it funny, we cut to Akbar's Players who are rowing in that same manner despite their boat being in fine condition. They have a problem, though. Their boat is sinking badly simply due to how heavy they are. Akbar's having to scoop out water with a plastic cup. He calls it a colossal disaster and they have fallen to last place.

The Moustaches make landfall first. They make note immediately that Gay Angst is not far behind them, so they hurry to the set of instructions. There's definitely a sense of urgency with the gypsies that has been somewhat absent throughout since there has been very little competition for them. The challenge that awaits teams here is at the mine site. Teams will select one of four piles of rubble and use a shovel to dig it up and throw it onto a sifter. Only one team member is allowed to do the digging. In each pile there are two stones containing a high concentration of amethyst crystals which will filter out on the sifter. The stones will be used to trade for Arabian stallions at the next checkpoint. As Gay Angst arrives, Kari tells us in TH we really don't know how bad they want to beat The Moustaches. She starts digging for her team. Back on the water, Akbar's Players are still struggling with a submerged boat. Overdramatic TH from Akbar says they couldn't make up ground and think they're done. We zoom out from their boat where Akbar still scoops out water desperately with a cup.