Iluka is the sort of place that people drive past on the Pacific Highway without noticing, and that is a pity. The town sits at the mouth of the Clarence River on the northern coast of New South Wales, a fishing village of about two thousand people on the opposite bank to Yamba, with a long surf beach on one side and the wide river on the other. A mineral-sands mining company that began here took its name from the place, which is as good a proof as any that this is real working country.
The reserve is what matters. Iluka Nature Reserve is a thin strip of rainforest growing right behind the beach, on the dunes, and it is a rare thing: coastal rainforest that grows in sand, on the very edge of the sea, exposed to salt wind. It is part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, a World Heritage group of reserves that preserve forest descended from the ancient supercontinent. Strangler figs, hoop pines, tuckeroo and cabbage-tree palms crowd the track, and the canopy is loud with birds. Walking in from the headland at the north end, the light turns green and the sound of the surf is muffled almost at once.
For a rider, this is a gentle, flat, coastal start rather than a technical one. The road in follows the river through cane fields and paddocks, with big skies, long straight sections, and ferries or bridges at the river crossings. Traffic is light, apart from school holidays. When you leave, the ride swings inland towards the ranges and the Lamington plateau across the Queensland border, and the road quickly becomes bendy and green as the hills close in. Watch for kangaroos at dawn and dusk and for cattle trucks along the main road.
Iluka has fuel and a couple of cafes, and Yamba, a bigger town of nearly seven thousand across the river, has more of everything. Fresh prawns and fish are the right lunch, and the local fish shops sell them. Winter is dry, mild and the best season; summer is humid and thundery. Wear insect repellent in the forest and don't leave your helmet on the ground unless you want to share it with ants.