If you get a chance go to Bletchley Park. Its a haunting place that was the location of the UK Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), and perhaps most famously the site that allowed Dilly Knox and the team including Alan Turing to build the Bombes which helped crack the German Enigma and Lorenz ciphers. I had to double check my facts after my first visit as I just could not believe that in the UK homosexuality remained a criminal offence until 1967. Turing committed suicide on June 7th 1954 after begin persecuted for being gay. It is little recompense that the UK government officially apologised to him for the “the appalling way he was treated”, but on the 24th December 2013 Turing was pardoned posthumously by the Queen – its not the finest moment for our democratic system and tolerant culture – live and let live.
Tag Archives: Travel Blogs
الصحراء الكبرى – Sand gets everywhere
After a really early start this morning, I fell asleep again in the sand of the eastern desert, on the edges of the great Sahara, awoken only by a strengthening onshore wind, I watched the sun rise. So close to the equator there is really no discernible length of twilight at either end of the day and sunrise to full strength takes a matter of minutes – pulling my self together I could not help notice tracks in the sand made by an unknown nocturnal visitor as I snoozed, seems he was not interested in me at all – I just like to think it was something small and fluffy…
Photographs with no credits
Its one of those random odd photographs, riding for a few hours and stopping to tumble off the bike into the meadow grass and flowers, kicking back to take of my jacket and boots in the strong alpine sunshine, rehydrating from a bottle of water and eating a snack when I hear the shutter of the Nikon clicking away – turns out the weight of my Hein Gericke jacket has pushed down the release and taken a series of random images – this one just captures the whole day for me, all that’s missing is the smell of the grass and wild flowers and the continual drone of insects as they forage for pollen.