CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
169 km from East Innisfail to East Innisfail, about 2 h 40 of riding. On the way it passes Component around Mission Beach, Component around Edmund Kennedy and back through Component around Mission Beach. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The Wet Tropics of Queensland are a long, narrow strip of rainforest between Townsville and Cooktown, and they hold the oldest continuously surviving tropical rainforest on earth, some of it unchanged for well over a hundred million years. The World Heritage listing, from 1988, covers not one block but a patchwork of national parks and other protected land, which is why the label calls this a component around Cowley. Here, the mountains run down almost to the sea, and on the flat, fertile coastal plain around Innisfail, sugar cane and banana plantations stand beside beaches, mangroves and remnants of forest.
Read the complete Component around Cowley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Component around Cowley is where the day begins. Next is Component around Mission Beach.
The cassowary crossing signs around Mission Beach are not a joke, and the bird they warn you about is not a small one. This stretch of coast between Tully and Innisfail is one of the last strongholds of the southern cassowary, a dinosaur-looking creature with a blue head and a horned casque, and the rainforest that runs right down to the sand here is part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage area. Few places on earth put ancient forest and a palm-fringed beach this close together.
Read the complete Component around Mission Beach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Component around Mission Beach comes up about 42 km into the recorded legs. Next is Component around Edmund Kennedy.
North Queensland has the oldest rainforest on the planet, and it stands beside the Great Barrier Reef, with the two meeting in a few places where the trees come down to the sea. Edmund Kennedy National Park lies on the coast near Cardwell, between the Bruce Highway and the Coral Sea, and it protects a lowland strip of tropical rainforest, mangroves and swamps. It is named after the explorer Edmund Kennedy, who landed in the nearby Rockingham Bay in 1848 on an expedition to Cape York, and died after months of hardship, speared by Aboriginal men near the northern tip. Only three of his party of thirteen survived, thanks in part to Jackey Jackey, an Aboriginal guide who stayed with him.
Read the complete Component around Edmund Kennedy write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 84 km into the recorded legs you reach Component around Edmund Kennedy. Next is back through Component around Mission Beach.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Component around Mission Beach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Component around Mission Beach, late in the day. Next is Component around Cowley.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Component around Cowley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Component around Cowley. That is the ride.
Component around Cowley → Component around Mission Beach is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Mission Beach → Component around Edmund Kennedy is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Edmund Kennedy → back through Component around Mission Beach is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component around Mission Beach → Component around Cowley is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.