The First Leg of a Latitude Journey
The idea is simple: focus on a line, East-West around the world.
I have spent the last year and a half thinking about this idea, all its possible manifestations, all the creative ways to engage people around the world in a Latitude Movement.
And in addition to encouraging my friends to join me with their own Creative Latitude Projects, I need to get started on my own latitude exploration. Below are notes from a couple hours following a latitude line East.
The First Leg- Notes On the Line from Manchester, Vermont to Stari Grad, Croatia.
These are my own initial research notes of a specific latitude line- eventually I will hone my blog into more interesting reading:)
A natural starting place is my current home. I plug the address into Lat Long.net. The latitude is 43.10 North. That means the tenth minute of the 43rd Parallel in the Northern Hemisphere. The 43rd Parallel is an East-West stripe about 69 miles wide. The tenth minute of that parallel is just over a mile wide, a very specific path through very specific places East-West around the world, all sharing the exact same daylength and sunlight each and every day.
The starting place is right here in the town of Manchester, VT, a few minutes walk from the post office.
Here we go! I have done a few online latitude cruises, looking into different latitude lines for friends, and generally my approach has been to just go East and keep going until I get all around the world. Along the way, I make note of spots that pop out to me, for whatever reasons. Some I overlook, not because of non-interest, but more just to simplify the first exploration, a kind of overview glance.
Home is a natural starting place, and online mapping makes it easy to go for a world tour.
New England, US
The first stop of note, directly East of my home, is the Southern Vermont Arts Center, also on 43.10N, and right in Manchester, at least according to the map. Haven’t even left town yet and the exploration gets interesting already, as I know that SVAC is West of my home toward Mt. Equinox. I suppose online maps always have to be taken with a grain of salt- but that said, I will go with it and consider SVAC my first stop on the line.
Going up across the mountain, North of Stratton and Windhall, the next town I hit on 43.10N is Windham. And then Grafton.
The heart of Langdon NH is close enough to be on the line.
New England College in Henniker, NH! Awesome, some students.
The Southern tip of Concord NH, with St. Pauls school within reach to the North (at 43.12N).
Town forests and woodlands. Across to Maine.
And to the Atlantic Ocean at Cape Neddick Maine.
The Atlantic Ocean
Lots of Ocean. East East East. Just missing the southern tip of Nova Scotia, Canada.
East across the Atlantic.
Northern Spain
Landing just north of a lighthouse in Northern Spain- Faro de Cabo Vilan, Camarinas and the Illa Vilan de Flora.
Pescaduira and Lazo, Spain. A rural area? Camelle de Ariba…A Mata, Spain.
UNEMSA manufacturing company. Baris, Spain.
Arganosa. Calvela de Abaixo. Lots of farms.
Morzos Spain- Cafe Bar As Tinaxas.
Santaia Spain. Cesuras. Trasanquelos.
A prison near Estraviz.
A golf club South of Guitiriz.
Baamonde, Spain, at the intersection of highways.
Moving East- Cangas del Narcea Spain. Aguasmestas. Pola de Lena/ San Feliz. Parque Natural Redes. Asturias Castile and Leon.
Parque Nacional de Los Picos de Europa
Arenas de Iguna
Lanzas Agudas- Basque Country
Zaldu, Ugalde y San Roman.
Durango, a city! Population? Seems a larger community than most places on the line so far.
Irura, Spain. Mountains. East. Goizueta.
And to the border of France.
Southern France
Uhart-Cize. Saint Jean Pied de Port, France.
La Magedeleine.
Farms, farms, farms, Idaux-Mendy.
Bidos, France.
Restaurant-
Truck Farmer:
Plant nursery-
A bed and breakfast:
Winery:
11200 Boutenac
France
A Castle: