One of Britain’s favourite adventure travel shows is back, and this time it's the celebrities’ turn to take on Race Across the World.
Celebrity Race Across the World sees four new pairings take part in the adventure as they race to the finish line in Melbourne, Australia.
We met the teams in the Malaysian city of Kuching before they embark on a 4,660-mile race across three countries and two continents, relying only on local transport, a map, and a budget of just £26 a day.
This year’s race includes Brit award-winning singer-songwriter Ella Eyre and childhood friend Nana, as well as former Soccer Saturday presenter Jeff Stelling and his son Matt.
Singer-songwriter and West End star Sam Ryder will also compete with his best friend and tour manager, Kaz, while Katie Price and Peter Andre’s children, influencer Princess Andre and her musician brother Junior, complete the line-up.
As each episode airs, we'll dive deeper into the destinations the teams visit on series four of Celebrity Race Across the World.
To look back at where the teams visited in series six of Race Across the World, which aired earlier this year, check out our page on the race destinations.
The start
Kuching, Malaysian Borneo
The teams set off from the city of Kuching, not in mainland Malaysia, but in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. Borneo is the third largest island in the world, with its land shared by Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.
Kuching, also known as “cat city”, is home to some architectural marvels, such as the famous S-shaped Darurl Hana Bridge over the Sarawak River and the Masjid India Kuching mosque, which was designed to look as if it were floating on water. The Kuching Waterfront is the city’s main promenade and a focal point of the city’s historical, cultural, and social offerings, lined with stalls, cafes and museums.
Visitors often try and spot the different cat motifs, statues and sculptures that are found all over the city, paying homage to its name Kuching, which is the Malay word for cat. The city is also home to many ethnic communities, including Iban, Bidayuh, Malay, Chinese, and Melanau, all of which influence festivals, art, and cuisine. Some of the most popular dishes in Kuching are Sarawak Laksa soup and Kolo Mee noodles. Kuching often serves as a gateway to some of Borneo’s most famous national parks, such as Bako, known for its unique rock formations, rainforests and proboscis monkeys.
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Checkpoint one
Pangkalan Bun, Indonesian Borneo
The first leg of the race saw the teams travel 1,000km from Kuching to Pangkalan Bun. The southern Borneo city straddles the bustling Arut River edged with stilted homes, while the city itself is made up of an agglomeration of villages, meaning the city has no real centre. Most visitors to Pangkalan Bun stay in the city to make a trip to the nearby Tanjung Puting National Park, one of the best places in the world to spot orangutans. The park has many destinations that can be reached on guided boat tours, such as Camp Leakey, the famous orangutan research centre founded in the 1970s. The park is also home to an Orangutan Care Centre that rehabilitates wounded primates and cares for babies. Borneo is one of only two islands where orangutans are now found, making it a special place for nature enthusiasts to visit.
Before the teams reached the checkpoint, they had a choice of travelling south via the western coastal fringe or choosing a more direct route through Borneo’s interior, home to traditional communities and dense jungle terrain. Some of the spots that the pairs passed through included the coastal town of Sematan near Mount Kuwai, popular with hikers and Nek Bidang, home to one community of Indigenous Dayak people, who live in dwellings called longhouses and live off small-scale subsistence farming such as rice collecting. Other highlights included Tae Village, where another Dayak community lives in the foothills of Tiong Kandang and the coastal transport hub of Pontianak, which lies directly on the equator and is home to busy ports.
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The end
Melbourne, Australia
The teams will race to the finish line in Melbourne, Australia, 4,660 miles away from where they started their epic intrepid journey. Known as the country’s cultural capital, Melbourne is where you can find some of Australia's best galleries, sporting events and world-class coffee scene.
Street art, trendy cafes and boutique shops are tucked away in its famous pedestrianised laneways. Melbourne’s galleries also feature more art, including the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art and the National Gallery of Victoria, the country's oldest gallery. For the city’s sporty side, many visitors will plan a trip around some of the major sport events that are hosted in Melbourne, such as the Australian Open, Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix and Australian Rules Football, the national sport.
Melbourne is home to a close-knit Aboriginal community, whose culture and history can be learned about across many attractions such as the Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre inside the Melbourne Museum and the Ian Potter Centre showcasing Aboriginal art.
Celebrity Race Across The World airs on iPlayer and BBC One on Wednesdays at 8pm
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