In the end I walked over 110 miles in January, including a couple of walks over three miles. I have seen starling murmurations, and wandered around both Criccieth and Porthmadog. I have caught plenty of Pokemon, and seen signs of spring.
The Fundraising
You can sponsor me until the end of February 2022. https://events.soldierscharity.org/fundraisers/RuthWillmore/operation-bletchley-balkans
If you would like to have a go yourself the challenge is repeated each July, and again in January, with different codes to break each time. You can try previous codes in return for a donation.
Operation Bletchley is raising money for ABF The Soldiers’ Charity, the National Charity of the British Army and you can make a real difference.
Berlin : 40 Miles
52 miles completed – daily walks
Code | Junior | Codebreaker | Cypher Expert |
1 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
2 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
3 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
4 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
5 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
6 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
7 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
8 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
9 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
10 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
40+ miles walked and 30 codes broken. I gave up on the final Super Cypher code received on 29th January, just too much for my tired brain!



The Balkans : 80 Miles
110 miles completed – every step counts
Code | Junior | Codebreaker | Cypher Expert |
1 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
2 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
3 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
4 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
5 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
6 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
7 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
8 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
9 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
10 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
80+ miles walked in a month, and 30 codes broken. I paid for a clue for the Super Cypher and we got it, with a whole day to spare.



It has been great fun, good exercise physically and mentally. The codebreaking is very much a team effort with my Mum, with Zoom sessions to work together on some of the trickier puzzles.
My fourth time taking part in Operation Bletchley and I am already looking forward to the next in the summer. Why not join in? You can walk anywhere in the world and earn a medal for completing any one level. You don’t even have to walk, you can log other forms of exercise or challenge instead.


Operation Bletchley: Day 28 Sitrep
I carried on walking, after all I still have Pokemon to catch, and Stepbet and Waybetter challenges to make. It has been a busy week – a new job, assignments due for Strathclyde and two Pharos courses… I did fit in a bit of codebreaking, and the weekend diary is cleared to finish the mission. […]

Operation Bletchley: Day 24 Sitrep
New job day! Very exciting, and not much walking or codebreaking! But I had a codebreaking session yesterday, with lots of help from Mum, and we cracked quite a lot. A walk late afternoon a few days ago to see the starling murmurations helped a lot with getting to the walking targets. The Fundraising Operation […]

Operation Bletchley: Day 20 Sitrep
We have had dry but cold weather. Ideal for walking! I have a couple of longer walks planned to the weekend to should complete the walking part of the challenge with some time to spare for the final codebreaking. The Fundraising Operation Bletchley is raising money for ABF The Soldiers’ Charity, the National Charity of […]