KABUL — Some were excited, others were a bit nervous, but most of the 100 Canadian soldiers who arrived here Thursday to start a six-month tour of duty were just plain exhausted from their roughly 42-hour journey from CFB Valcartier near Quebec City.

"I'm definitely a bit nervous," said Capt. Jennifer Martin, 29, of Edmunston, N.B.

"It's a little bit of the unknown that (we're) going into."

One-by-one, about 50 soldiers filed off the first of two C-130 Hercules transport aircraft, arriving just before the lunch hour under cloudy skies that would later unleash a mixture of rain and snow.

"Is it always dreary like this?" asked one soldier as he glanced into the greyness overhead.

The first batch of soldiers were quickly taken by armoured personnel carriers to Camp Warehouse, the smaller of the two Canadian bases in Kabul, before the second planeload arrived.

From the back of the enclosed Bisons, the troops were unable to view the devastation that more than two decades of war have visited on Kabul, or the cranes that have become more prevalent in recent weeks as the city tries to rebuild. But there would be plenty of time for that, as the soldiers will take over duties currently carried out by other members of the Canadian Forces under the NATO-led Kabul Multinational Brigade umbrella.

"It's almost a certain sense of relief to finally be here," said Lieut. Andrew Hepburn who lived in Deep River, Ont. before joining the forces and moving to Quebec.

"For so long it's been going on, the training and all the working up to it and the kind of apprehension. It's nice to finally see the way things actually are."

This is Hepburn's first time working as a peacekeeper.

Lt.-Col. Eric Tremblay, on the other hand, has been around the block a few times. Having served in Cyprus and Bosnia, he came to Afghanistan prepared to do a job.

"I think we're focused. We know what we came here to do," he said as he waited to fill in the paperwork that is all-too familiar to veteran peacekeepers.

"Everybody understands their role. It's a team effort and we're just going to move on."

At the same time, Tremblay, who will take on the role of deputy chief of staff for the multinational brigade, says the soldiers are very aware of the dangers of their job, reminded every day of two Canadians who were killed last fall while on a routine patrol.

Sgt. Robert Short and Cpl. Robbie Beerenfenger died Oct. 2 when their Iltis jeep struck a landmine south of Kabul.

Four other Canadian soldiers died and eight were wounded in April 2002 when a U.S. fighter pilot mistakenly dropped a bomb on them.

"To some extent the risk could be a bit higher," said Tremblay as his thoughts turned to the months ahead that could see potentially volatile national and presidential elections in Afghanistan.

"You're really moving forward from stabilization to actually a national architecture in terms of putting on the ground the (new Afghan) constitution."

The rest of the nearly 1,900 other soldiers from 5 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group will arrive in Kabul by mid-February for a six-month mission as part of the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF.

The Royal 22nd Regiment, commonly known as the Vandoos, will replace the Royal Canadian Regiment based at CFB Petawawa in Ontario, which accounts for 40 per cent of the 5,200-member force from 34 countries.

For every planeload of new soldiers to arrive, those who have been here for six months or more will fill the emptied seats, and head home, many with a renewed sense of the advantages that exist for Canadians in their every day life.

"Being here has made me realize that we have a great country and a great society," said Lieut. Neil Trask, who is scheduled to return to Canada on the weekend.

"When I see children on the streets without clothes or shoes, people without the basic necessities of life, I now appreciate more what I have and the family I have probably a thousand fold," Trask added.

"It's also increased the strength of my relationship with my wife, my children.

"I guess it makes the insignificant things in life seem insignificant."

Canada will take over command of ISAF from Germany in a formal ceremony slated for Feb. 10.