The HRS Has Landed @ SALT!!!

The Mechanicals (yes, that's a local brand of superhero) passed the morning doing training for the renewal of their rigging & overhead crane operation certificates.  Chris entertained visitors from the KAT7/MeerKAT support team & the HRS gang tried not to contemplate grim explanations for why the truck with the container had not shown up.

 

By mid-afternoon, we were all getting rather anxious about our precious cargo which had yet to appear.  Then great relief & excitement as the huge truck with our 40 foot container on the back trundled past on its way to the KMTNet construction site!  Apparently the driver's delivered a couple of things there in the past so he assumed that's where this load belongs, until Martin convinced him otherwise & directed him back to SALT.

& a thoroughly nifty truck it was!

Even software people were lured outside to see what all the fuss was about ;)

Having reversed up to the SALT loading bay doors, the truck unfurled its stabilising legs.

& lifted the container.

The big blue box was swiftly planted on the ground beside the truck.

An enthusiastic audience observed from the relative comfort of the sheltered loading bay.

With the container snugly on the ground, Eben & his angle-grinder could dispatch with the locking bolt.

Ok -  at least there's something inside...

David & Jürgen hopped inside to make sure everything's as they left it on 24 July.  It all looks Good & there's even a "we were here!" note from the Customs officials.

Still no comment about it looking like a roasting turkey...

With the skates for moving the tank not yet in use & Eddy feeling invincible in his zippy new safety boots, there was only one thing to do!  Note the high technical merit of this move since gravity alone was keeping the relevant components in place.

Time to attach the steerable wheels to the front of the tank.

& then pull while Johan & Timmy in the back of the container paid out slack on their chain hoists.

Here's Luke doing his best prop-forward impersonation...  Sometime during this stage, Fred ambled past & commented that this was a bit like watching an elephant giving birth.

Plenty of focus from those driving things from the back.

Big sigh of relief having successfully negotiated the nasty step out of the container! 

It literally was all down-hill into the spectrometer room after this.

How Ridiculously Cool Is That?! :)

Straight into his/her (can anyone tell?) new home...

So much for That, then it was time to unload all the other stuff that was piled in the back of the container.

Air-conditioning ducting...

Insulation...

Opto-mechanics, tools... everything else that's needed to put this 3D jigsaw puzzle together & make it work.

Super-domesticated Jürgen couldn't possibly leave the container in such a mess!

With all our bits unloaded, it was time to pop the container back onto the truck.

Papa Smurf, hanging around in the cab, looked vaguely pleased with the day's proceedings.

& so it was that our long-awaited truck rode off into the pending sunset.

Just as well we got all the airfreight crates that had been scattered around in the spectrometer room out of the way yesterday!

Clearly tomorrow will be another busy day with Lots of stuff to unpack/sort/move & start using!

Congratulations to All concerned for a Big job Very well done :)  Now the games can really begin!