Port Douglas is the northern end of one of Australia's loveliest coast roads, and a town that has gone through at least three lives. It began in the 1870s as a port for the goldfields inland, was nearly abandoned when the railway went to Mossman instead, and then reinvented itself in the 1980s as a laid-back resort town. The population is a little over eight thousand, with a long main street of cafés and bars, a sheltered marina and Four Mile Beach, which is wide, pale and well patrolled by lifesavers. There is fuel, food and every kind of bed, and it is a very easy place to finish a ride.
The Captain Cook Highway that brings you here is the real attraction. It runs north from Cairns along a narrow strip between the Coral Sea and the green wall of the Great Dividing Range, with the rainforest pushing right to the edge of the road in places. The bends are gentle and the surface is good, but the scenery is the thing: little bays, headlands, the blue of the Great Barrier Reef offshore. Weekdays are quieter, and sunrise on this road is a great time to ride, when the sea is flat and the light is rose-coloured.
Just north, the Daintree rainforest begins, among the oldest rainforests on Earth, a place of strangler figs, giant ferns and cassowaries. Mossman Gorge, a short ride inland, has clear, rock-strewn water and walks through the forest. Take care near the water's edge in this region: saltwater crocodiles live in the rivers and estuaries, and the warning signs are not decorative. Swim only on beaches that are signed as safe, and only within the stinger nets in the wet season, roughly from November to May, when box jellyfish are a risk.
Mossman, ten kilometres up, is a sugar town with a working mill, and the cane fields around it are bright green and endlessly flat. Expect road trains of cane trucks in the season, and be wary of sun, heat and humidity, which can make a leather jacket feel like a mistake. The dry season, from May to October, is the comfortable time to ride. Drink water often, and enjoy a cold beer on the waterfront afterwards.