Why this ride
A dense sequence of passes, valleys and viewpoint roads. It also links naturally to Wet Tropics of Queensland.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Kuranda Range and Rex Lookout Loop
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 132 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 13
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Access context
Check state road reports, fire, flood, fuel range and unsealed-road suitability. Specific flag: traffic; rain.
Seasonal context
May-Oct
Scenic road chapters
Captain Cook Highway
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 18 km this is Captain Cook Highway, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 18 km
- Named road
- Captain Cook Highway
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Cairns
Cairns sits in the tropical far north of Queensland, with the Coral Sea on one side and a wall of rainforest mountains on the other, and the whole town is organised around the idea of being a launch pad. Boats leave daily for the Great Barrier Reef, small planes head for Cape York, and the road north runs up to the Daintree, where the oldest rainforest on earth meets the beach. The town was founded in the 1870s as a port for the goldfields at Hodgkinson River and later became a sugar and tourism centre. It is not especially pretty in the old-town sense, but the Esplanade, with its saltwater lagoon, mudflats full of waders and cheerful backpackers, has a relaxed tropical air.
Read the complete Cairns write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cairns sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Kuranda.
2. Kuranda
Kuranda sits above the tropical lowlands of Far North Queensland, a village of about three thousand people in the rainforest on the Great Dividing Range, reached from Cairns by one of the most unusual commutes in Australia. The Kuranda Scenic Railway, built by hand in the 1880s and 1890s, climbs the range through fifteen tunnels and across high bridges, past the Barron Falls, and the Skyrail cableway glides above the canopy. By road, the Kuranda Range Road winds up through forest in steep bends.
Read the complete Kuranda write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kuranda comes up 28 km in. Next is Mareeba.
3. Mareeba
Mareeba is the dry side of Far North Queensland. The town of about eleven thousand lies on the Atherton Tablelands, a plateau behind Cairns, but it sits in the rain shadow, and so the lush rainforest of the coast gives way to open eucalypt woodland, grassland and cattle country. The change is dramatic when you ride up the Kuranda Range from the coast: in an hour you go from wet tropical forest to red earth and dry savannah. The country here was long a tobacco-growing district, and the old kilns are still visible in places, but today the crops are coffee, mangoes, sugar cane and tropical fruits.
Read the complete Mareeba write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
57 km in you reach Mareeba. Next is Cairns.
4. Cairns
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cairns write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cairns, late in the day.
Recorded source links
More motorcycle rides nearby
- Captain Cook Highway starting at Cairns · 26 km
- Gillies Range and Atherton Tablelands · 180 km
- Captain Cook Highway · 69 km