RTG Hanoi Daily Dispatch - for website 2 - Flipbook - Page 45
27 January to
23 February 2024
Day 25 Lạng Sơn to Hạ Long Bay (221km)
21 February 2024
Photos: gerardbrown.co.uk
after the intense endurance rallying we’ve seen
over the last few days, today the crews were given
the chance to take their foot off the gas slightly,
with a shorter day and only one regularity to
trouble them along the way.
it was the most rural of routes and through every village we
were cheered by everyone old enough to cheer, including
a group of ho Chi minh lookalikes who, like us, couldn’t
quite believe what they were seeing!
We’d woken to a cool, misty 23°C and, throughout the
morning, saw a few spots of rain, the first of the event.
the rainy season is just around the corner - good news
for the rice farmers and their water buffalo - but bad for
the brush makers with great swathes of drying grass lying
by the roadside ready to be spliced and whipped into the
ubiquitous besom so common in south east asia.
the 8.5km regularity at dong son ran over a slippery
concrete road through a well-managed forest and along
the Bo Cha river. two timing points and many changes
of gradient made this section a challenging one. John
llewellyn and david harris stopped the clocks and a main
road whisked us to the Wyndham hotel in hạ long Bay for
a buffet lunch by the sea and a leisurely afternoon.
tomorrow is a rest day with a difference and, despite the
sweeps car park party on the dockside tonight, the crews
were advised to make sure their sea legs were ready.
Otakar Chládek and Jindřiška Žemličková, 1971 Mercedes-Benz 350 SL
Jeff Urbina and Chris Pike, 1972 Porsche 911
www.rallytheglobe.com
