Rain. Basically. Oh, and multiple tunnels later, we arrived. And it was raining, did I mention that? We would have been welcomed by amazing mountains, which were discovered when the rain departed, but alas, we couldn't really see them on our arrival. We drove straight to the stables, which were in a little field in the middle of the picturesque and unassuming village of Stefan ob Leoben nestled between the mighty mountains, there were only 3 stables/tents up, the rest were still being assembled. We were the first nation to arrive, closely followed by the Canadians I believe. The horses had already been settled in having already arrived earlier in the day, and seemed quite content, but most curious to the goings on. After a bit of a sort out of all the kit, and purchasing hay, straw and shavings, Sarah and I headed out on our trusty steads to explore the local area, on our travels we discovered a haven of PTV practice obstacles and jumps, obviously recently cleared for the use of competitors, just ashore of the raging and furious torrents of the Mur River. These proved rather useful, and eventful in the coming days.
When we got back, Becky had arrived with her pony as she had driven over separately and not used the horse transporter, and Anne had arrived with Julia (our "assistant Chef d'Equipe", and former Young Rider). Annes hired horse, Merlin, more commonly known as Hank the Tank, had also arrived, so they met and gret each other.
We were then told that we had to have ID Cards to get us into the accommodation, which was at the nearby Army barracks, however, due to some printing error most people seemed to represent some creatures from another planet, much to the amusement of us, and Annes was especially flattering...Eventually we headed off to the barracks, and were greeted by some rather lovely and not so subtle yellow buildings, which made them easy to spot whence among the mountainous terrain. We then dined upon delicious Austrian cuisine provided by the local supermarché of cheese, meat and bread.
That evening we settled ourselves in, getting to know the local brews and sampling the delights of the common room area in our block, which was utilised by all, leading to English domination. Mainly because Portugal, Spain, Italy and Algeria hadn't yet arrived, and we were sharing our block with them.
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| St Stefan ob Leoben looking pretty |
