Aerial Views of 2025

Tuesday, 2 December 2025

Every year there are some great views I glimpse out of an airplane window and as usual, when I look back on a previous year’s travels, I’ll quote Joan Didion ‘the most beautiful things I had ever seen had all been seen from airplanes.’

▲ Hard to beat this one and the Cloud Appreciation Society – yes, there is such a thing – I’m sure would agree. I’d departed Denpasar, Bali flying with Virgin Australia back to Melbourne and soon after departure the sun was sinking in the west (as it does) and this was the view out over the Indian Ocean, it’s a long way to Africa.

▲ Flying with Air Algerie from Amman in Jordan to Algiers in Algeria. There’s no moving map or other fancy entertainment information so you had to work out where you were yourself – south from Amman, across the Sinai, close to Port Said – top of the Red Sea and the Suez Canal – and then that was very definitely Alexandria down below, identified by long narrow Lake Maryut or Mariout. So then across the Mediterranean Sea, but suddenly Malta pops up below, the whole island perfectly framed in my window.

▲ Still with Air Algerie, now I’m flying from Algiers south to Djanet in the Sahara, close to where Algeria, Libya and Niger meet and where I’ll be doing Part 2 of my Algeria trip, a walking and camping trek into the Sahara looking for ancient rock art. All the flights between the capital, Algiers, and the southern centres of the Sahara are middle-of-the-night red eyes flights and I probably slept most of the way to Djanet. Fortunately I woke up to glimpse this view.

▲ I’m flying Melbourne to Alice Springs with Qantas – we’re over South Australia, a classic ‘Red Centre’ view. Flying from the Australian east coast to Bali, to Singapore, to Dubai, you fly over a lot of central Australia and from 35,000 feet it can look tediously mundane. Down at ground level it’s often a very different story as anybody who has taken a 4WD along an Australian desert track will confirm. Here the dry river trails tell their own story.

▲ Lake Eildon in Victoria – flying between Sydney and Melbourne you often fly over this artificial reservoir lake soon after departing from or arriving to Melbourne. ‘How’s the serenity’ is a classic line from the much loved Aussie movie The Castle, uttered as speed boats and jet skis scream back and forth across the lake in the background.

▲ Flying into London Heathrow there are very often superb views if you approach from the east, right over the city. This time I was flying from Belfast City Airport (George Best City Airport for football fans) and the view takes in the tall pointy Shard, London Bridge Train Station, the buildings of the London City business centre, HMS Belfast, the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. One minute earlier I was flying over the Thames Barrier, London City Airport, the O2 Arena and the buildings of Canary Wharf.

▲ And 60 seconds later I can see Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Waterloo Bridge and Waterloo Station and the London Eye ferris wheel.