03-Aug-2025 -- The word of the day is “antipode”. Because the Earth is mostly ocean, most points on land do not have an antipode that is also on land. But I happened to be born in a place (Auckland, New Zealand) that has an antipode on land - in southern Spain, near the city of Ronda. Earlier today, I visited the exact antipode of my place of birth. Not far away from my place of birth is a Degree Confluence Point - [-37,175] - that I visited in 2013. Today I got to visit its antipodal point, to complete my first antipodal pair of Degree Confluence Points.

I drove to this point from the town of Almargen, just to the West. As I was making a turn in one of its narrow streets, I scraped the side of my rental car, likely incurring hundreds of Euros of damage (visiting Degree Confluence Points can be expensive!). The point itself is not particularly interesting, except that it lies next to a railroad track (and not far from a road). (Because I was next to a railroad track, I was not allowed to fly my drone here to get an overhead view.) Also. several annoying thistles were growing nearby.

The last visitor to this point - just 5 months ago - was Rainer Mautz, during his hike from Portugal to Singapore. It was interesting to note how dry the vegetation is now (in mid Summer) compared to Rainer's visit in early Spring. (I fear that Rainer and I are destined to travel the world. visiting many of the same Degree Confluence Points - but never at the same time :-(