The dismantling

The event and the success of it was amazing, thousands and thousands of people came to see it: the first Belgian Antarctic research station in decades!


After a week or so, the dismantling started and that’s where I started. My role wasn’t really clear at first but there was so much to do anyway… So I started to help dismantling inside the station and made plans per room with notes on the elements in order to find them back. Then my role started to become a bit clearer: I had to control the elements before the military put them in containers. Make a sheet of papers with remarks etc per piece, one paper in a file, the other one on the element itself. Then was added the task to control every container, sign the papers when cleared then close them and seal them.


It was like a big train: the Prefalux crew was dismantling the station, the Ardenais crew was preparing the elements before packing and the army would put everything on readymade palettes, strap them and push the palettes inside the containers.


I was thus working alongside the three groups.


The Ardenais had to wait for me to clear the elements before packing them, if there was any problem, Prefalux had to repair, then I would check again and if I was satisfied it could be packet.


Every time a palette was ready to be pushed in a container, the army would call me, I had to check that everything that had to be in there was indeed on the palette, that all the paper work was filled in correctly and that all elements were well strapped. If it all was OK they would push the palette inside the container and close it.



A few weeks later, on the 25th of September, everything was out of T&T. Sixty containers were already finished and the rest of the elements had been transported by military trucks to an army base close by. The T&T site had to be cleared for another event so we had no choice but to leave even though we weren’t quite ready…



After that it’s was pretty much the same kind of work but in Peutie (the army base). Something else also came to me: the preparation of the custom papers for all the containers. That meant making an Excel file with all the containers, write down everything present in those containers (plus weight) and relate that to invoices. As it all became a bit too much for me I got some help from a guy named Jeoffrey for a few days, and we managed…



On the 30th of October, the whole station plus tools was in containers. There were 87 containers for the main building, 10 for the steel pillars and a few others with various things. There were also two new snow tractors, a few sledges, wood to build the garage etc.



All of it was loaded on the Ivan Papannin (the ice breaker) within two days. The Boat left the harbour of Antwerp Tuesday the 6th of November at 14h30.



Again, I could be complaining a bit about some of the planning and communication, but just like before, everyone's motivation made it happen in time, eventhough it was a rather close shot this time!