I have many different travel goals: visit every country, state, national park, etc. But one of my less-defined travel goals is to just travel as far as I possibly can. While I had plans to go farther than I’ve ever gone this year, unfortunately those plans have changed, but that led me to research where the farthest I’ve been actually is. It’s hard to determine that because you could measure distance from home or time spent getting there, but neither of these methods really felt like they answered that question. But there is one definitive way to determine how far I’ve gone: latitude and longitude. So I decided to figure out which places that I’ve personally been are the farthest north, east, south, and west using the geographic coordinate system. And then I also added in altitude to determine my highest and lowest points visited. I was surprised by a few of these and not surprised about others. I’ll list them all below and share a little about my experiences there.
North [50.4501°N]
When trying to determine my northernmost point, I thought it would be somewhere in Canada, but after finding that Vancouver was my farthest north in Canada, I compared it to Kyiv, Ukraine and found that Kyiv is actually higher than Vancouver. I loved my time in Kyiv. Nothing went as planned- my permit to visit Chernobyl was denied and I got sick, but the city itself was a nice surprise. I would love to return to Ukraine again someday to explore more of it. This was also my first time stepping foot in Europe (outside an airport) so that could also have something to do with it. While I haven’t explored any other European countries other then neighboring Moldova, I believe that Ukraine is very underrated as a European destination, and many travelers I follow have said the same thing about their experiences there. I gave a “virtual tour” of Kyiv on Instagram a couple months ago (@tylersgerman), and it’s still up in my highlights if you’re interested in seeing it. I’ll probably bring that to this blog at some point too if I get around to it. Overall, Kyiv is one of my favorite cities in the world, and I was very surprised by it.
East [37.4916°E]
I thought my eastern-most point would be easy to determine because I’ve been to Asia, literally “The Far East.” My only Asian country so far is Israel, but when comparing its coordinates to certain places in Africa, I found that it’s not as “far east” as I thought it was. Most of Kenya is farther east than my easternmost point in Israel. My easternmost point within Kenya turns out to be Samburu National Reserve where I took a safari on my last day in the country. This was a beautiful desert location with a river running through it and tons of wildlife to spot. When traveling throughout the reserve, we had to hire a Samburu warrior to accompany us for protection in case we found ourselves in any dangerous situations. He was like 7 feet tall and carried a machete. I saw so many monkeys, giraffes, zebras, elephants, and gazelle, along with many others. I had seen these animals at zoos and amusement parks many times, but seeing them in their natural habitat is one of the most special experiences you can have. I highly recommend taking a safari someday if you ever get the chance, and I plan to write a post about my safari eventually.
South [4.2315°S]
My southernmost point was the easiest to figure out. I’ve only been below the equator twice: once in Kenya where I actually went to the equator, and the other time was in the Amazon. My farthest point visited in the Amazon was actually the Amazon River itself where it passes through Tabatinga, Brazil. To get here, I walked through a stilt village built high above the ground as protection from rising water levels. Due to the height and the spacing between the boards that made up the village, it was actually kinda dangerous at points, especially when carrying large bins of medical equipment like I was. But this was an incredible experience to have, and the culture here was so different from anything I had ever experienced before. And then after passing through the village, I had to trek through deep mud to reach the shore where I climbed into a small wooden canoe with a motor on the back which eventually ran out of gas in the middle of the river with literally miles to shore on either side! I still claim that this is my favorite trip I’ve ever taken, and I don’t see anything passing it for a while. If you’re interested in hearing more about my time there, check out the article I wrote titled “My Trip to the Amazon (Part 1).”
West [157.9972°N]
Similarly, my westernmost point was really easy too. The farthest I’ve been in the Pacific is Hawaii, and my farthest point on the island of Oahu is Turtle Beach on North Shore. North Shore is a beautiful area on Oahu and has by far the best sunsets on the island. And Turtle Beach in Haleiwa was a really cool place to visit. This is the beach where many sea turtles come to rest, and if you’re there at the right time you can see them up close. The problem is they only operate on “turtle time” as the wildlife lady there told us. It’s hard to predict what time they will be coming to shore because it’s different every day. I’ve seen pictures online of turtles resting on the beach, and I’ve heard stories of people visiting and seeing nothing. Luckily I did see some turtles, but they were swimming around right off shore. I probably would’ve stayed longer to see them as they start walking onto the beach, but it started raining, so I headed back to the car. I still got to see wild sea turtles, so it was very exciting. If you visit Oahu, don’t stay at Waikiki the whole time! Make sure to visit North Shore while you’re there.
High [12,060′]
This is the only one I’m not 100% sure about. I can’t check the altitude for literally every spot I’ve ever stood, but I think I’m pretty close. (And I’m obviously not counting altitudes reached while flying). I visited the Rocky Mountains in Colorado back in 2013, and I believe the highest place I visited was Winter Park Resort in Colorado Springs. It’s a beautiful ski resort where I’m sure is fun to go skiing. I’m not a snow person as this was really my first time seeing snow other than flurries or old snow piles on the side of the road. So, I wasn’t about to try to ski down a mountain… But I did take a snow cat ride up the mountain. This brought me to the highest point in the park, which is the Sunspot, so I believe this is the highest altitude I’ve ever reached other than flying. This was a good trip that I don’t talk about much, but my pictures from there are horrible quality. I enjoyed visiting Colorado and would like to go back someday. It also bothers me that nowhere I visited is included in Rocky Mountains National Park, so I need to return to visit the park someday too.
Low [-1410′]
There’s no question here: I’ve been to the lowest spot on the earth, so I can’t possibly go lower unless I explore the oceans someday. The Dead Sea is one of the most unique places on the planet, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to visit it. I didn’t necessarily have the greatest experience there as I shredded my foot on a sharp rock in the middle of one of the saltiest bodies of water on earth… But I am so glad I was able to come. It’s weird when you first walk out because it feels like normal water. You don’t realize how buoyant you are until you either lean back, lose your balance, or go about chest deep. Then once your feet shoot up in front of you, it’s hard to get them back down, so you can get stuck literally laying on top of the water. It’s a really cool experience, and I’d like to revisit it someday but maybe from the Jordan side. Just watch out for those unmarked sharp rocks if you do visit because that was very painful. If you’d like to read more about my experience at the Dead Sea, I share that story in my article titled “Covenant Journey Part 3: Negev.”
For fun, I figured out which of these locations is geographically the farthest from Pensacola, and it’s Samburu National Reserve, which is 8,222 miles away. That would also be the one that took the longest to return from (not counting delays) as the full trip from the reserve to Pensacola took me about 36 hours, much of that was driving on dirt roads in the middle of nowhere. I have enjoyed seeing much of the world and hope that I can continue to push my farthest points even farther after coronavirus is over. I do have plans to change my southernmost point next year and possibly my easternmost, but obviously nothing is certain right now. Thanks for reading, and I’ll be sharing my next post in a couple weeks.
Tyler's Travels 