Rain is the first fact of life along the Russell River. The river drains the eastern slopes of the Bellenden Ker Range, south of Cairns in far north Queensland, and these mountains, including Bartle Frere, at 1,622 metres the highest peak in the state, catch the moist trade winds off the Coral Sea and wring out some of the heaviest rainfall in Australia. The result is a dense, steaming tropical rainforest that tumbles down the mountains to the coastal plain, part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area, listed in 1988. It is one of the oldest continuously surviving rainforests on earth.
The forest is alive with strange creatures. The southern cassowary, a huge flightless bird with a blue neck and a horny casque on its head, roams the forest floor and occasionally the roadside; give it plenty of room, because it can be dangerous. Tree kangaroos, musky rat-kangaroos, brilliant blue Ulysses butterflies and a dazzling array of birds and frogs live here. Near Babinda, the Babinda Boulders are a series of pools and granite boulders in a clear, fast creek, beautiful but deceptively dangerous, with a long list of drownings; heed the warning signs. Josephine Falls, on the slopes of Bartle Frere, has natural rock slides and swimming holes.
The coastal plain below is sugar cane country, with small towns built around sugar mills, narrow-gauge cane railways crossing the roads, and the smell of burning cane and molasses during the crushing season from about June to November. Babinda is a classic example, a small town that grew up around its mill, with the cane trains rattling past the end of the main street.
The Bruce Highway runs north to Cairns and south to Innisfail through the cane fields, flat and busy with trucks. For better riding, head inland: the Gillies Range Road from Gordonvale climbs to the Atherton Tableland in a famous series of hairpins, popular with riders, with dense rainforest on either side and views across the plain. On the tableland, Lake Eacham and Lake Barrine are crater lakes surrounded by rainforest. Watch for cassowaries, wet roads and slow cane trucks. Babinda has fuel and basic shops; Gordonvale and Innisfail are larger. The wet season, from December to April, brings torrential rain, floods and cyclones; the dry season is warm and pleasant.