Antipodes



Source

When I told my friend Michel from my French conversation group that I was going to Madagascar, his response was that that's just about as far away as I could get without getting closer. I started thinking about that today, did some digging (not literally) and found out that he was pretty much right. This map lets you figure out the farthest point from a given place (its antipodes), and California and Madagascar are pretty much saying “what's up” to each other on it. Since Oakland’s antipodes is in the Indian Ocean, Madagascar is the closest land to it. The southeast coast of Madagascar is about 11,350 miles from Oakland, while the furthest point from Oakland would be about 12,450 miles away.

So to Michel: Nice geography skills! And to my parents: Sorry about the cost of plane tickets for your visit.