Why this ride
69 km from Cairns City to Port Douglas, about 1 h 14 of riding. On the way it passes Palm Cove and Rex Lookout. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Captain Cook Highway
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 69 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 14
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. 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.
Scenic road chapters
Captain Cook Highway
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 26 km this is Captain Cook Highway, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 26 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 is where the day begins. Next is Palm Cove.
2. Palm Cove
Palm Cove is the quiet end of the northern beaches north of Cairns, a village of under four thousand people on a curve of sand with a long jetty and an avenue of old paperbark trees along the beachfront, their bark peeling in soft white layers. The paperbarks, or melaleucas, lean over the footpath and give shade to the cafes and restaurants beneath. It is a resort village, calm and a bit upmarket, but small enough that a rider on a road trip can wander in without feeling out of place.
Read the complete Palm Cove write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Palm Cove comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Rex Lookout.
3. Rex Lookout
Rex Lookout is a pull-in on the Captain Cook Highway, high on the headland between Cairns and Port Douglas, where the road leaves the cane fields and clings to a steep, green coastline. From the platform you look straight down onto a succession of bays, long white beaches, scattered islands and a sea that goes from pale green to deep blue. On a clear morning you can see all the way along the coast to the north, with the rainforest hills of the Daintree fading into haze.
Read the complete Rex Lookout write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 45 km into the recorded legs you reach Rex Lookout. Next is Port Douglas.
4. Port Douglas
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.
Read the complete Port Douglas write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Port Douglas closes the day.
Leg by leg
Cairns to Palm Cove
Cairns → Palm Cove is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Palm Cove to Rex Lookout
Palm Cove → Rex Lookout is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rex Lookout to Port Douglas
Rex Lookout → Port Douglas is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.