South of Cairns, the coastal plain narrows between the sea and a wall of mountains that includes Bartle Frere, at 1,622 metres the highest peak in Queensland, and its neighbour Bellenden Ker. The ranges here are covered in dense rainforest, among the oldest on earth, and they form part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland, listed by UNESCO in 1988.
The rainforest here is extraordinarily rich, with ancient plant lineages, giant trees, palms, vines and ferns, and animals found nowhere else, including tree kangaroos, the musky rat-kangaroo and many species of frogs and birds. The southern cassowary, a large, flightless bird with a bright blue head and a horn-like casque, lives in these forests; it is endangered and can be dangerous if approached, so slow down when you see warning signs on the road. Rainfall here is among the highest in Australia, and Babinda is often cited as one of the wettest towns in the country.
The riding is varied. The Bruce Highway along the coast is busy and fairly straight, running through sugar cane fields with the mountains rising to the west. But just west of Gordonvale, the Gillies Range Road climbs steeply up to the Atherton Tableland, with a famous sequence of hundreds of bends in a short distance, a challenging and exhilarating ride through rainforest, with views back over the coast. On the Tableland, roads wind through dairy country, past crater lakes and waterfalls. Watch out for slippery surfaces after rain, which is frequent, and for cane trains crossing the roads during the harvest season.
Gordonvale has a curious claim to fame: it was here, in 1935, that cane toads were first released in Australia to control pests in the sugar cane, a decision with disastrous consequences, as the toads spread across the continent. A statue of a cane toad in the town commemorates the event. Nearby, the Babinda Boulders, a series of pools and granite boulders in a rainforest creek, are a popular swimming spot, though people have drowned there, so heed the warnings.
Gordonvale, about twenty kilometres away, has fuel, shops and cafés; Cairns has everything. The best time to ride is the dry season, from May to October, when the weather is warm and sunny; the wet season brings heavy rain, flooding and the risk of cyclones.