Journey to Dubrovnik - NOT dobro

I didn't manage to make it on the 5:15 AM bus - it was all booked. I panicked for a moment because I had been led to believe that there was only one bus a day to Dubrovnik. Actually there is an afternoon one as well. Had I known that I would have opted for that to begin with! So I got to spend one more morning in Vela Luka and this one was spent doing nothing but laying on the beach and swimming. Was it hot!! You don't realize how hot it is when you are diving all day.

Although probably the most picturesque journey I have taken, my bus trip to Dubrovnik was HELL. Tino described the road as serpentine. That doesn't even begin to explain how windy the road is! And the bus driver drove the whole way at mach 10. I have never been car sick in my life. I started to feel sick about two minutes into the trip. As the bus departed, the woman in the seat across from me crossed herself. I quickly realized why. The road twists and winds through the mountains (only a few hundred metres high, but enough to have steep grades in places) along the coast. The road is not wide, has no shoulders, and in many places it is right on the edge of a cliff. And often no guard rails. Or else the road goes through part of the mountain so you have limestone cliffs on both sides. I really did not think I was going to survive the trip. The way the driver drove that bus, I was positive that we were going to fly over a cliff and into the Adriatic Sea. Either that or smash into a wall of limestone. I was hoping for the dramatic plunge into the sea.

As it turns out, the driver did prove to be a little less than adept at his job. He got the bus stuck while driving off the ferry which goes from Korčula Town to Orebić. I have no idea how he did it. The bus needed to turn quite sharply to get off the ferry and onto the road. However, he only managed to turn it marginally and the front of the bus was only a couple feet from the stone wall of the port. Somehow the back tire got stuck on the ramp. After he gave a couple attempts to get the tire unstuck, myself and a few others decided to get off the bus. I was worried that when he got the bus unstuck, that it might drive right through the stone wall and into the sea. He managed to get it unstuck after a few more tries. Then the driver just about drove off without those of us that had got off. We had to jump on the bus as it was moving! Meanwhile, our driver had managed to completely back up the ferry traffic. There is supposed to be a ferry every 10 minutes, but he had blocked all traffic getting off the ferry as well as on. Only for about 40 minutes.

I was never so glad to get off a bus in my life!