Why this ride
Sustained elevation change, linked bends and open summit views. It also links naturally to Gondwana Rainforests of Australia.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Waterfall Way starting at Coffs Harbour
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 192 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 43
- 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: fog; rain; road works.
Seasonal context
Sep-May
Scenic road chapters
Waterfall Way
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 39 km this is Waterfall Way, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 39 km
- Named road
- Waterfall Way
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Coffs Harbour
Coffs Harbour is where the Waterfall Way meets the sea, and the town has the easygoing, banana-and-surf character you expect from the mid-north coast of New South Wales. The Big Banana, opened in 1964 and often credited as Australia's first big roadside novelty, still stands beside the highway as a reminder of the plantations that once covered the hills. These days blueberries have mostly replaced bananas, but the sunny slopes are still there.
Read the complete Coffs Harbour write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Coffs Harbour sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Dorrigo.
2. Dorrigo
Dorrigo is a quiet town of about a thousand people on a high plateau in northern New South Wales, a dairy and potato district that feels cool and green compared with the coast an hour below. The plateau is the edge of the old volcanic land that rose after the great Gondwana breakup, and it still catches the rain from the Pacific. The result is a rainforest that has survived as an island of tall, dripping trees, now protected in Dorrigo National Park and listed with other east-coast reserves as the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia. A short drive from the town you can walk a boardwalk through the canopy and look down on ferns and strangler figs.
Read the complete Dorrigo write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Dorrigo comes up 71 km in. Next is Armidale.
3. Armidale
Armidale sits on the New England tableland at close to a thousand metres, which means it feels cooler than anywhere else for hundreds of kilometres around. It is a handsome city of about twenty-four thousand people, with two cathedrals, wide streets lined with deciduous trees that turn gold and red in autumn, and a university that gives it a lively student feel. After the long climb from the coast on the Waterfall Way, it is a welcome place to stop, and it is a proper city, with every service a rider could want.
Read the complete Armidale write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
192 km in you reach Armidale.
Recorded source links
More motorcycle rides nearby
- Waterfall Way (335 km) · 190 km
- Mt Hyland Nature Reserve and Dorrigo National Park · 297 km