Atherton sits at about 760 metres on the Tableland behind Cairns, and the first thing you notice after the climb from the coast is the air. It is cooler, drier and smells of cut grass and woodsmoke instead of mangrove mud. The Tableland is a high plateau of old volcanic soil, rich enough that the area grows maize, peanuts, potatoes, bananas, coffee and tea, and the countryside looks more like a patch of rolling green dairy land than the tropical north. Cattle graze under big, spreading trees, and crater lakes fill the hollows left by ancient eruptions.
The town itself is a working service centre of about seven and a half thousand people, with every kind of shop, fuel station and bakery you could want, so it is the sensible place to eat and fill the tank. It began as a timber and tin town in the late nineteenth century, and many Chinese workers stayed on to farm; the Hou Wang temple, a small wood-and-iron building lovingly preserved, is a reminder of that history and is worth a short visit. Tolga, a little way north, has a reputation for timber craft and woodworking, and Yungaburra, to the east, is a charming village with old pubs and a famous curtain fig tree nearby, its aerial roots hanging like a drape.
The riding is the main draw. Roads on the Tableland roll across the plateau in gentle sweeps, then dive into rainforest where the temperature drops and the light turns green. The ride down the Gillies Range toward the coast is famous for its hundreds of corners, and the surface is generally good, though trucks and tourist traffic can slow progress. Watch for wet leaves and sudden showers, which are common in the wet season from December to March, when cloud sits low on the range.
Wildlife is plentiful. Cassowaries, the huge flightless birds, live in the rainforest, and tree kangaroos hide in the canopy near the lakes, while platypus are sometimes seen at dusk in the creeks near Yungaburra. Come between May and October for the driest weather, and linger over a coffee made from local beans.