The splendid horseshoe

. . . I was able to get a full view of that extraordinary wonder of the natural world, all six hundred yards of it from the broken cataracts at its western end to the splendid horseshoe on the east. Aye, the devil certainly looks after his own, thinks I, while my Galla escorts sneered and nudged each other and muttered “Walker!” in Amharic.



Flashman on the March, p.145, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, view.

Engulfed in water

      Falling down one of the highest waterfalls on earth (so far as I know on the Victoria Falls are appreciably higher) is not like toppling from the lofty side of a ship (which I’ve done) or from any other dry height. I say “dry” because being engulfed in water which is undoubtedly drowning you quite takes away the sensation of falling, and there is no shock of entering the water at the end of your enforced dive; you arrive cocooned in the stuff and borne into the depths in a state of complete confusion: you can see nothing but blinding light and hear nothing but continuous thunder, you can’t tell which is up and which is down, and only at the uttermost limit of your plunge does some inkling of your situation enter your consciousness and you begin to rise again.


Flashman on the March, p.142, Harper Collins, paperback edition 2005.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, waterfall.