Outdoor Activities ...
As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in Africa, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Africa and the surrounding area.
- Weather ...
- Before heading outdoors, you should check the weather:
- The National Weather Service forecast for Africa
- Astronomy & Satellites ...
- Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
- To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above, we pass this GPS location for Africa:
- 37.840327, -87.072774
- Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
- The Heavens-Above Website, centered on Africa
- Bird Watching ...
- We enjoy finding new spots for bird watching and we use the eBird website for local sighting reports and to help identify hotspots.
- The eBird website is organized on a county-by-county basis. We have selected Spencer County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- eBird sighting report for Spencer County
- Since Africa is near Daviess County and also Hancock County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- eBird sighting report for Daviess County
- eBird sighting report for Hancock County
- Waymarking ...
- Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
- Waymark.com
Communities Also Named Africa ...
We found eight communities that share the name Africa.
Within Indiana, the name Africa is unique.
Beyond Indiana, we know of another four communities that are located throughout in the United States.
In addition to the above occurrences of Africa, we know of four communities located outside of the United States and Canada.
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Saint Charles County
- Although located in Saint Charles County, we don't know the location within the county.
- For more information, please visit our profile page for the Saint Charles County community of Africa.
- Ohio
- Pennsylvania
- Communities Beyond North America ...
Curious and Interesting Names Near Africa ...
As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.
- Enterprise
(5 miles [8 km] to the west)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Enterprise have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Enterprise
- Enterprise is located in Spencer County
- Eureka
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eureka
- Eureka is located in Spencer County
- Grandview
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Grandview have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grandview
- Grandview is located in Spencer County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 720 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Grandview <5>
- Lake Mill
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the north) - Patronville
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Patronville have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Patronville
- Patronville is located in Spencer County
- Rock Hill
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the north) - Rockport
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rockport have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rockport
- Rockport is located in Spencer County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 2,136 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rockport <5>
- Sand Ridge
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sand Ridge have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sand Ridge
- Sand Ridge is located in Spencer County
- Silverdale
(5 miles [8 km] to the north)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Silverdale have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silverdale
- Silverdale is located in Spencer County
- Spice Knob
(5 miles [8 km] to the east)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Spice Knob have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spice Knob
- Spice Knob is located in Daviess County (KY)
How Far From Africa to ...
We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers, Almanacs & Directories that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Africa to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Africa and extending to:
- Rockport, which is the Seat of Spencer County, lies just to the North Northeast.
- Indianapolis, which is the State Capital of Indiana, lies 141 miles [226.9 km]<3> to the north northeast (NNE). If you could drive a straight line from Africa to Indianapolis, with an average speed<6>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 8 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 6 days.
- The White House (Washington, DC) is 547 miles [880.3 km] to the east (E). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 22 days and walking would take 31 days.
- The shortest distance<7> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,355 miles [10,227.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
- The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,081 miles [11,395.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,957 miles [7,977.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<10>
Off-the-Road Links ...
Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Africa. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.
The official website for State of Indiana: https://www.in.gov
Footnotes ...
| <1> | We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Africa, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |
| <2> | If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer. Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Rock Creek to see Pete ... Rock Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name. Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time. Also keep in mind that Africa could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out. |
| <3> | Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Africa) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Africa. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.8403, Longitude: -87.0728 In this case, the coordinates for Africa have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). |
| <4> | The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required. |
| <5> | While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program. |
| <6> | While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day. |
| <7> | The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from Africa to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East. |
| <8> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 314.032 degrees. |
| <9> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 310.299 degrees. |
| <10> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.403 degrees. |