FORWARD OPERATING BASE SPERWAN GHAR, Afghanistan - From behind a jagged mountain range, two Black Hawk helicopters thundered out of the Afghan sky and disgorged more than a dozen desert-weary Canadian gunners desperate for a cold drink, a warm shower and a hot plate of food.
Sun-baked and coated with dust, they slumped into the cool shade of an underground bunker complete with electric lighting, bunk beds and even a freezer - luxury compared with the flea-ridden swatch of desert in southern Helmand province where many have slept under the stars since late February.
"Grab a bed, boys," shouted Warrant Officer Dennis Goodland of D Battery, B Troop from the 2nd Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, based in Petawawa, Ont., as he surveyed the accommodations.
For B Troop, Saturday's 25-minute helicopter ride low over the Afghanistan countryside was their first relief in weeks from the punishing heat and ever-present grime of Forward Operating Base Robinson in the Sangin River valley, where they spent weeks pounding Taliban positions with the fearsome "Desert Dragons" - a pair of 155-millimetre M777 Howitzers, the mightiest artillery in the Canadian arsenal.
They're here on Sperwan Ghar - a Canadian base in the mountains of the Panjwaii district, 30 kilometres west of Kandahar - to do much the same thing, only with the benefit of amenities most Canadians take for granted: cold water, hot food, clean clothes and showers.
In Helmand, soldiers were reduced to leaving bottles of drinking water under the air conditioner in one of the supply trucks in a largely futile effort to cool it down. It was so hot during the day, some soldiers took water from outside and used it to make warm tea, straight from the bottle.
"Where we were, in Helmand, it's quite a bit more austere," said Capt. James Leslie.
"My soldiers haven't seen (drinking) water colder than the shade since February . . . there's even water frozen stiff; it's a nice touch."
On Friday, two coalition soldiers - one Dutch, the other American - were killed in two separate mine explosions less than two kilometres from the base in Helmand. One suspected Taliban insurgent was killed and another wounded in the area later in the day when they were engaged by coalition troops.
Both were found with bomb-making equipment, an alliance statement said.
On Saturday, as the Black Hawks were taking off, an Apache attack helicopter could be seen strafing the area in an effort to detonate any remaining mines.
Operations in the area are all part of a NATO push, with the help of the Afghan National Army, to flush Taliban rebels out of the tactically important Sangin River Valley in opium-producing Helmand province.
But all that was a distant memory for Master Bombardier Art Fleming as he marvelled about his first shower after 15 days in Helmand's oppressive heat and ever-present dust.
"It was actually really nice; the water felt great," said Fleming, originally from Chance Harbour, N.B., a small fishing village 25 kilometres west of Saint John.
"You could see the dirt running off; I could actually see my skin again."
From a personal hygiene standpoint, the timing of Saturday's transfer couldn't be better: soldiers all over southern Afghanistan are falling victim to a nasty stomach bug that's been making the rounds in recent weeks.
Leslie said several of his troops have fallen ill over the last couple of months, and said soldiers are doing their best to battle the illness, which seems to take between 24 and 36 hours to run its course.
"We're North Americans, and so we don't get a lot of the microbes and such that do well in these areas," Leslie said.
"Generally, we work hard to keep our hands clean and we will avoid the symptoms, which include really bad diarrhea and vomiting . . . it's a dangerous situation."
Gunner Robert Kelly said Canadian troops don't often see conditions on a base much more Spartan than what they had at Forward Operating Base Robinson, where the toilets consisted of little more than a putrid hole in the ground and the closest thing to a shower was a quick swab with a baby wipe and a blast of deodorant under each arm.
"That's pretty much as rough as it gets; you've got your water and your rations, and you just go from there," said Gunner Robert Kelly, 23, from Sydney, N.S..
"Water bottles and baby wipes, deodorant, if you care - that's about it, really."
Despite their long days of late, many of the soldiers were gearing up for an early morning so they could catch some of the NHL playoffs live on Sperwan Ghar's satellite TV hookup.
"Just watching TV, sitting down and not worrying about crazy stuff - it's a nice break," Kelly said.
