Inland from the cane fields south of Cairns, the land rears up into a wall of rainforest so dense that the ridgelines seem to steam after every shower. Gordonvale lies about fourteen kilometres to the north, Babinda a little further south, and the tableland town of Yungaburra up over the range to the west.
This forest is old in a way few places are. It holds lineages of plants that date back to Gondwana, when Australia was still joined to Antarctica, and it shelters creatures you will not see elsewhere: the cassowary, a flightless bird as tall as a person that should be given the road and plenty of room, tree kangaroos, musky rat-kangaroos and electric blue Ulysses butterflies. Above it all stands Bartle Frere, Queensland's highest mountain, usually wrapped in cloud. The Aboriginal rainforest peoples of this country, among them the Yidinji, have lived here for many thousands of years and still hold the land's stories.
For riders, the nearby Gillies Range Road is the headline act: a climb from the coastal flats near Gordonvale up to the Atherton Tableland, with a famously long sequence of tight bends packed into a short stretch. It is a joy on a dry morning and a slippery, leaf-strewn test after rain, which here is often. Watch for caravans crawling uphill, cyclists, and wildlife at dawn and dusk. The Bruce Highway along the coast is flat, busy and dull by comparison, so use it only to link the good bits.
Gordonvale has fuel, a bakery or two and a pub, and Babinda is known for its Boulders, a swimming hole in clear mountain water, though signs warn that the currents there have claimed lives and should be taken seriously. The dry season from about May to October is by far the most comfortable time; in the wet, cyclones and flooded causeways can shut roads for days. Bring rain gear whatever the forecast says.