Originally Posted by
IndyDavid
It's too bad only KLM offers a day flight on the longhaul from Europe to South Africa anymore. We flew it on Swiss from ZRH several years ago. The impossibly thin band of green along Libya's Mediterranean coast and then the vastness of the Sahara was stunning. The Sahara itself was beautiful, too... almost lunar, endless, featureless, except for giant mountains rising out of nowhere and tiny straight-line roads barely keeping the sand at bay. By the time we crossed the equator, it was twilight, but we could see giant thunderheads in the distance, lightning crackling around inside the huge clouds. What a great introduction to Africa.
David
Completely agree with you about the benefits of day-time flights between Europe and Africa. Some years ago, BA changed the schedule to Zambia & Zimbabwe so that the a/c went out & back in a day (from LGW). This gave an all-day trip down, & it was stunning compared with overnights both ways previously. (It also provided the opportunity for an extremely civilized 'afternoon tea' towards the end of the flight.)
These possibilities still exist for LUN & HRE, but these days it's the return flights (now into LHR) that give the daylight trip. The same applies to DAR. Most outward flights to NBO are day-time and there are some daytime return flights as well.
There are also lots of chances to get daytime views of the Med & the Sahara when flying into West Africa, but because these flights are shorter, around 6 hours, many finally arrive after dark. You then sometimes miss out seeing the transition from Sahara to rain forest. (They arrive after dark because the schedules have the a/c departing late at night for arrivals into Europe just after 06:00.)
If you're flying CDG-DKR, the trip sometimes takes a very westerly course, so try to ensure that you're on the left side of the a/c. You then get to see the NW African coastline & a wonderful view of the Sahara meeting the Atlantic. On the other side, all you see is sea (& the Canaries in the middle distance).