Surely every overland trip should include a drive past Blackpool Illuminations.

We camped not far from Squires Gate so drove north to Bispham then south.

We felt like a couple of geriatric infants.

The illuminations were first switched on around 1907.

Part of the memory of my first trip off the Isle Of Man.

Central Pier seems to have grown a Ferris wheel.

A special tram for the illuminations.

We could hear the screams from the roller coaster. It seems to have become steeper or I've become older.

Being over 3.5 tonne we could be a display vehicle with free entry.

We got some piccies printed and bought a bit of hardboard for display.

Lots of info on Morocco. Very little on the Stans.

Australia seems a very long way away.

Next year's expo already has a date.

We had preserved the alignment and no adjustment necessary.

This time we managed to look at the entrance to Kilsby Tunnel. 2650m long. That's one of Virgin Trains on the main west coast line.

Part of the Grand Union Canal.

1397m long.

Kilsby is also around where Danelaw was dominant to the north. Near Watford Gap which is probably why its considered where the north begins.

This is the largest of the ventilation towers.

A smaller one near our camp site lets out a low whistle whenever a train is in the tunnel.

This is Block B, the entrance to the museum.

Several thousand people worked here as part of the code breaking process.

These are some of the parts of a Bombe. Machine used to automate part of breaking the code created by the German Enigma machines.

By the end of the war there were about 200 Bombe machines working.

Code breaking is not unlike taking the incomplete Ogham Script of burial stones, with an unknown language, and ending up with English. With a few extra twists of course.

From my perspective the genius of Bletchley is the industrialisation of code breaking. 

The original owners added some whimsical architecture as the fancy took them.

Hence the copper cupola speared by a gable end.

Thus, a coded message with a possible (German) translation with no spaces could be slid sideways until no letters on the top line were above the same letters on the bottom line. The guess was referred to as a crib.

One step in the process.

Whereas the Bombe was electro mechanical Colossus was more electronic. The advent of stored programme computers.

Also in the grounds is a toy museum.

Meccano models of Blackpool Tower were provided to shops which sold lots of Meccano. The more they sold the more complicated the model.

I haven't seen Bayko for years. It probably couldn't be sold these days for health and safety reasons. Grrrrr.

The Viking Way, one of England's many long distance paths, runs along the bottom of this valley.

North of Blechford. We walked to Scamblesby.

No idea about the name. Its a sandstone outcrop in the middle of the chalk.

Just a few days in Spilsby this time. Ready to head to Morocco for the northern winter.

Maybe the model for Gandalf's hat?

Fillets. None of the careful removal of bones that I remember from my youth. How the world has changed!