Sunday tours, easy to take for granted. You look on the planet web site, grab the place and start time, turn up ten minutes late, have a great skate, maybe indulge in a little lunch and then go home happy. All very easy, but how do the tours come about in the first place I hear you ask? Well, Monte and various members of the Planet team go out on a recognisance run, armed only with a UBD and a keen eye for good skating terrain, and map out a possible route. To test the route, it is added to the tour list as a mystery tour. All participants are then invited to comment on the route and think up possible names providing the tour makes it into the regular roster. So far, all mystery tours have gone on to become permanent features of the planet tour family, so they have a pretty good track record as an enjoyable days skating.

‘Mystery tour’ has a whiff of the exotic about it, an element of the unknown, pioneering a new route, skating the unskated. Maybe this put people off, because by one o’clock the turn out was looking a little on the thin side. With Monte leading the tour, Lyndal carrying the all important directions and Vaughan assisting, there were a total of eight people ready for the off. We were told our ultimate destination would be arrived at by train and Vaughan was duly dispatched ahead to bulk purchase the tickets. The first clue was then revealed. The three letter station code was ALT. No one was any the wiser and we set off to the train station desperately trying to think of locations starting with Alt.

We arrived at Southbank station in a couple of minutes and were greeted by Vaughan clutching a handful of tickets. Eager inspection revealed our destination as Altandi (mystery to history in five minutes). Blank looks were exchanged and shoulders shrugged as everyone admitted they had never heard of the place. Even now, a couple of days after the skate, questions about our destination are met with the remark ‘where’s that?’ Altandi, it would seem, is not one of the better known small towns in Queensland. In fact a search on the electric internet reveals that it’s most famous asset would appear to be its train station (and even then only as a handy way to get to other places near by). So, a little Altandi train station trivia for you. The ticket vending machines code number is 219, the car park has 103 spaces (although there was a question mark by the ‘Are they secure’ label), the tracks are 58 meters above sea level and the word Altandi is a derivation of ‘Large Gum Tree’. So there you go, everything you need to know about Altandi train station, should anyone ever ask!

The train ride took about half an hour and we emerged into warm sunshine and a clear sky as we sat on the platform, 58 meters above sea level, and put our skates on. We skated past the 103 spaces of the car park and noted the location of ticket vending machine number 219 as we left the station, destination Brisbane.

The pace was fast and ground was covered quickly. The route linked together a series of bike paths with nice smooth roads. Hills were a notable feature of the afternoon, although thankfully the largest one was in the downwards orientation. This ran alongside a freeway (separated by a large wall) and required a serious crouching position to be held for a considerable length of time to attain ultimate terminal velocity (which made your feet ache).

A couple of hours later and we were back at Southbank. A few suggestions for tour names were put forward and a general agreement was reached that these possibly required a little more work. There was no question however that the actual skate had been a lot of fun and that it would make an excellent addition to the planet tour family. On that note we split up to head our separate ways home after a mysterious afternoons sk8ing.