Sunshine. Bright, warm life affirming sunshine. I’m not falling for that again. After last weeks near finger losing brush with frostbite I decided a policy of warm clothes was the order of the day (and lots of them).

With a twelve thirty start, I was already running late. I had less than ten minutes to skate from Milton to the south side of the Goodwill Bridge and I had just missed the traffic lights on Coronation Drive. Another two minutes lost, I now had eight minutes. Low crouch, lots of knee bend, go for it. Good in theory, unfortunately, around midday, the bike path is full of bikes and a lot of them are being ridden erratically by small children. No time for niceties, just keep going. Five year old on a scooter, ten o’clock high, veer right. Oh no, two small girls on pink tricycles dead ahead, left or right, left or right? Stuff it, straight on, tight squeeze, I’m through, head down plough on. 12:34pm, south side of the Bridge. Made it. Just pick the pink mud guard out of my brake and I’ll be all ready to go.

Arriving practically last, it was obvious that Norman Oxford was going to be a well attended tour. The midday sun was now streaming down and with the relatively cruisey nature of the description on the Planet web site, people had decided to pull on their skating boots and have a fun afternoons roll. Monte was going to be leading the tour assisted by Julie, Vaughan and Paul. Lyndal was also in attendance, but her civilian attire indicated she was there for fun and not in an official Planet capacity. With everyone gathered, Monte made the introductions, told us there would be practically no hills (no change there) and we were ready for the off.

A quick skate along LRT and then a steep climb onto the bike path at the side of the freeway got us all nicely warmed up. We continued along bike paths until we arrived at our first major stop of the day, Coorparoo Skate Park. For a Sunday afternoon, there were not many people using the park, but the take up from our group was still pretty poor. Monte had a go on the half pipe, Lyndal and Paul ran some of the ramps and everyone else stood and chatted. Where’s Bruce and Dave when you need them?

We were soon on our way again and skating along some beautifully smooth roads through the suburbs of Coorparoo and Norman Park. With Julie leading the way, pointing out the nice houses and there approximate value, it wasn’t long before we came to the top of a steep hill. With just a single junction half way down, Julie was despatched to watch for cars and the rest of us lined up single file for a ‘bomb’ to the bottom. Camera in hand, I went first to get pictures of everyone else as they passed. Stopped near the end of the run, I waited to get action shots of each person passing. Andy came down doing a superman impression, Anne came down in a more upright position, with Paul crouched behind her, almost catching her by the end. Lyndal got a big speed wobble going and tried to correct it by lifting her foot although as soon as she put it down again the wobble returned. A few other people got the one foot wobbles, but Darrel had what looked like a quite scary two foot wobble going. Then Shaun began his run, and when I say run, that’s exactly what he did. From the very top, he broke into a huge sprint before settling down into a tight crouch. By the time he reached the bottom, you could almost see the smoke coming from his bearings. The last few people came down slightly more sedately and with everyone gathered at the bottom we set off once more.

Before long, we were skating past Norman Park train station (2 platforms, 112 car parks of which 99 are secure, ticket vending machine number 310 and of course the all important 10 meters above sea level), on our way to Oxford street and lunch. We were still skating on roads, most of which were smooth and pot hole free. We crested another one of the ‘practically hill free’ hills and began the run down the other side. Speed was building and with no obstacles to slow down for, no one was particularly concerned. As we came round a gentle bend, the end of the road loomed into sight. Still a fair way off and carrying a lot of speed no one was ready to start breaking, however a small indent ran across the whole width of the road. In a scissor everyone easily ran over this without drama, however it somehow wrong footed Vaughan who, with all the grace of a train crash, launched into a headlong dive towards the road. The combination of the bend and the way he fell left him sliding on his side for a not inconsiderable distance. With yells of ‘man down’, everyone stopped just in time to see Vaughan scrapping himself off the road. Initial impressions were that his padding had taken the brunt of the impact; however, closer inspection revealed large friction burns through his top and trousers. It was fairly obvious that the flimsy material was not going to offer much in the way of protection and peeling away the shredded fibres revealed a sight that brought a butchers shop floor to mind. With sharp intakes of breath all round and the thought that ‘that is definitely going to sting in the morning’, Vaughan seemed to be taking it remarkably well. He either has no feeling in his body or is trained in the way of Zen pain blocking meditation. After formally announcing that was his official entry into the Planet ‘Stack of the Year’ contest, we all set off again for Oxford Street.

The main row of cafes and restaurants on Oxford Street were all doing a roaring Sunday afternoon trade. With spaces limited, a little off street excursion found a Tomato Brothers pizza restaurant looking like it was in need of some custom. Standing outside the door looking in, the sight of a highly polished floor began a skates on / skates off debate. The woman in the restaurant seemed a little reluctant to let us in at first, but Julie explained that she has polished wooden floors at home and skates on them all the time(?) The woman feeling more assured had a change of heart and beckoned us in. Thirty seconds later a trail of skate marks lead over to the section of restaurant we began to rearrange. We were soon all sat down and enjoying various varieties of pizza.

Lunch consumed, we gathered outside to decide on a route back. The choices initially were a skate to the ferry, getting off at either New Farm or Southbank depending on how energetic you were feeling. Monte then offered a further option which involved skating through the housing estates of Bulimba before catching the ferry back. This was enthusiastically seized upon and we duly set off. Half an hour later and we saw the sign for the ferry. Our timing was perfect, with a ferry pulled up to the dock and just beginning the process of accepting passengers. We hastily pulled off our boots and made a mad dash for the gang plank.

All safely aboard, we sat back and enjoyed the ride home. A few extra keen people jumped off at New Farm for a blast back along the river walk, the rest of us stayed onboard for the Southbank stop. A quick run along the river and we were soon back at the Goodwill Bridge to be greeted by everyone who had got off at New Farm. They initially said they had been back two minutes but this quickly increased to five minutes, then ten minutes and then explanations began to defy the laws of time and space at which point we all deduced they had arrived at about the same time as us. We all posed for one last photo in the orange glow of the afternoon sun, said our goodbyes and headed for home after a warm, enjoyable afternoons sk8ing.