Travel gone nightmare neverending wanderlust

24 hours and 1700km later, we were still in the bus. Already past midnight, three different drivers had been switching duties and we were slowly reaching the last part of our journey as well as our final destination: the vast domain of Les Sybelles, in the heart of the Alps. Tired of having been sitting for a long time, a ski week ahead was the only though keeping the 42 passengers smiling.

Left the highway half hour ago, the curvy roads were now narrowing and rapidly covering in snow.

Downhill, approaching the reservoir, the route bent right once again. At that point, speed and visibility weren't that bad but odds were against us that night. A sudden ice layer on the pavement blocked the bus wheels and the vehicle started gliding at a slow-enough-to-be-death-scary speed against the dam. Infinite anguish seized us all in the front. As trip guide, I was right behind the driver, a VIP seat to admire the disaster movie passing by in front of us. No fence seemed to have stopped us while the vehicle continued advancing to the verge. Below me and overlooking a 20m void, the left front wheel was not landed anymore. On the other hand, the right front one begun to be lifted too. A guy next to me and I exchanged glances. Speechless fear.

Nothing could be done to avoid falling into the void. We were going to die !

Oddly, the movement ceased. Still swinging on a miraculous concrete guard rail, I got up quietly on the verge and asked everybody to leave the vehicle calmly without motion surprises. Lastly, I exited it. Winter jacket in hand, touching ground again felt like a birth certificate. Outside that hell, freezing cold temperatures and a snow storm, our full-of-valuables and unsecured bus still pointing to the wrong direction, a blocked dangerous road, lots of vehicles and buses trapped and many people trying to help and get involved.

Whatever. We were alive.

Thinking back; I cannot remember clearly how those moments were lived on-board. Apparently, many customers were screaming for the doors to be opened and getting ready to use glass hammers to jump out of the bus before it vanished in the dam.

I swear I did not hear a single noise.