Most of us will remember this scene from “The Fellowship of the Ring”
For years I’ve been thinking about this and guessing at the answers. Silly me! This being the age of information and all, I decided to start looking up the answer. And because web-based tools are easy to use, I figured, why not have a Straight Dope thread where others can share if they like?
Now, I see there is already a thread with this title. But, it’s not been posted to for 21 years! Let me start a new one therefore, and upfront, let me suggest a few metrics I’d like to hear.
First you should try to pick a place for your “home.” (You can keep this secret if need be.)
Where have you visited that can be called “farthest from home?” There has to be a single place…where is it?
While we are on the topic, please investigate and list the furthest North, South, East and West you have been. North and South are fairly straightforward. For “East” I chose this to mean “to the East from home” and “West” to mean “to the West from home.” Which means, starting from Wisconsin, my “West” result is somewhere in Asia, and my “East” is in Greece.
My results:
Home = Madison, WI (I know there are many others on this forum from there!)
Furthest = Hiroshima, Japan. (10,410 km from MSN)
North = Skagway, Alaska (59.46 deg N)
South = South Point, Hawaii (18.99 deg N)
“East” = Heraklion, Crete (25.13 deg E)
“West” = Seoul, South Korea (126.98 deg E)
Suggested web based tools for distance and lat/long finding:
(As far as I can tell, these are ad and malware-free. Although the lat/long finder has an arbitrary daily quota on lookups. You might also try Google Earth.)
A follow-on message: I was particularly inspired by this “furthest from home” mapping after meeting a neighborhood kid who, before I met him, had only journeyed to Kentucky, from northern Indiana. He hadn’t even been to Chicago. So his metrics were like “500 km (furthest), Fowler, Indiana (N), Kentucky (S), Fowler, IN (W), Kentucky (E).” Such a small area of the globe.
Just by taking him with my son to the Museum of Science and Industry, we practically doubled the area of this box. We’ll make a Samwise Gamgee out of him yet. (Although I refuse to visit Mordor.)
Let me add another “rule” to this exercise: When citing places, please include only places you’ve physically stepped outside into the open air. Don’t include aircraft flights (over the pole) or brief stays changing planes in airports.
I suspect most of use that were in the Navy were as far away as possible. Around 12,450 miles.
My suspicions might be wrong. It looks like I barely made it 10,000 miles from home somewhere in the Indian Ocean and Singapore was the furthest land I was in. This was about 9500 miles.
Furthest North for me was
Lossiemouth, Scotland at 57.7°N (Honeymoon in Scotland) Someday I’ll visit Iceland giving me a new furthest north.
Furthest South, East & West was somewhere in the Indian Ocean.
Sure, being on the deck of a ship grants you access literally to the opposite side of the world…
Do you all remember this map? It projects the world map (country boundaries etc.) through the earth to help you find the opposite point from any arbitrary starting point. It is not the most detailed, but it might help… https://imgur.com/KWpyhcO
Home: Midwest USA
East: Mont Blanc France 4,400 miles
West:Dutch Harbor, Alaska 3800 miles
North: Anchorage, Alaska 3100 miles
South: Grand Cayman 1300 miles
Interesting. I’ve been to Hawaii but Grand Cayman is a little further south and Dutch Harbor is a little further west.
When home was Victoria BC: Manila 10571 km
When home was Montreal QC: Abu Dhabi 10620 km
North: Tromso Norway 69.66 N
South: Manila 14 N
East: Abu Dhabi 54.4 E
West: Manila 120.95 E
Furthest ever - Clermont-Ferond, France, 6,880 km from my present location which is also “furthest east” at 3 degrees East
Furthest north - Brussels, Belgium at latitude 50.85
Furthest west - Phoenix, Arizona at longitude 112 West
Furthest south - Orlando, Florida at latitude 28.53 North
If you allowed airport landings my furthest north would be Reykjavik, Iceland at latitude 64.14 North but that was a refueling stop during the Atlantic crossing to and from Brussels. I did not actually exit the airplane, although the airplane was on the ground for awhile.
I’ve lived most of my life in and around the Boston area.
Furthest away - Hobart, Tasmania, Australia - 10,500 miles
Furthest south - Te Anau, New Zeland (45.4 deg S)
Furthest north - Stykkishólmur, Iceland (65 deg N)
I’m not sure how to measure East/West, as I’ve been around the globe pretty much. If you go by absolute longitude values it would be:
Furthest East - Tauranga, New Zealand (176 degrees)
Furthest West - La Push, WA (-122 degrees)
OMG I am embarrassed, in that I forgot my trip to Iceland. Let me suggest my new “farthest north” be amended to the site of the “world’s first parliament” at Thingvellir: 64.25 deg North. It blows away Skagway (merely 59 N).
Farthest from home: 2300 miles from where I was living at the time in upstate New York to Los Angeles.
Farthest north: vicinity of Ely, Minnesota (49.1 N)
Farthest south: Fort Lauderdale, Florida (26.1 N)
Farthest east: East Machias, Maine (67.4 W)
Farthest west: Los Angeles, California (118.4 W)
Furthest North: Dawson City, Yukon (5,791km)
Furthest South: La Paz, Bolivia (6,744km)
Furthest West: Long Beach, Vancouver Island (4,447km)
Furthest East: Tokyo, Japan (10,374km)
Furthest from home would have been Singapore, 14,880km
Furthest north looks like Twillingate, Newfoundland, which we drove through when I was a kid (we wanted to see the icebergs. took a few chunks home with us)
Furthest south would be San Juan, although the cruise ship might have gone a bit more south at one point.
