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.
A 325 km round trip from Yungaburra - roughly 4 h 42 in the saddle. On the way it passes Component around Hugh Nelson Range, Component around Malaan, Component around Russell River and back through Component around Malaan. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It follows river valleys.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 26 km this is Atherton Tablelands Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
A single tree, but what a tree. The Curtain Fig near Yungaburra, on the Atherton Tablelands of tropical north Queensland, is a strangler fig that started life as a seed dropped by a bird high in the canopy of another tree. Its roots grew down to the ground, wrapping and eventually killing the host, which then fell against a neighbour, leaving the fig at an angle. The roots kept dropping down from the tilted trunk, creating a hanging curtain of aerial roots that reaches the forest floor. A boardwalk lets you walk around it, and it is one of the most photographed trees in Australia.
Read the complete Component around Curtain Fig write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Component around Curtain Fig is where the day begins. Next is Component around Hugh Nelson Range.
The Atherton Tableland is the bit of tropical Queensland that feels like it has wandered in from somewhere cooler. At seven or eight hundred metres above the sea, the plateau behind Cairns has red volcanic soil, dairy pastures, crater lakes and patches of rainforest that cling to the ridges.
Read the complete Component around Hugh Nelson Range write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Component around Hugh Nelson Range comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Component around Malaan.
Up on the Atherton Tableland, behind Cairns in far north Queensland, the land rises from the hot coastal plain to a cooler plateau of volcanic soil, rolling farmland and patches of dense rainforest. Near Ravenshoe, which claims to be the highest town in Queensland, the forest around Malaan is one of the components of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage site, a long strip of tropical rainforest along the coast and the Great Dividing Range that contains some of the oldest continuously surviving rainforest on Earth. The forests are home to tree kangaroos, possums, rare frogs and birds, and, in the lowlands, the cassowary, a large flightless bird with a bony crest that is best admired from a distance.
Read the complete Component around Malaan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 59 km into the recorded legs you reach Component around Malaan. Next is Component around Russell River.
Rain is the first fact of life along the Russell River. The river drains the eastern slopes of the Bellenden Ker Range, south of Cairns in far north Queensland, and these mountains, including Bartle Frere, at 1,622 metres the highest peak in the state, catch the moist trade winds off the Coral Sea and wring out some of the heaviest rainfall in Australia. The result is a dense, steaming tropical rainforest that tumbles down the mountains to the coastal plain, part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area, listed in 1988. It is one of the oldest continuously surviving rainforests on earth.
Read the complete Component around Russell River write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Component around Russell River, about halfway. Next is back through Component around Malaan.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Component around Malaan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Component around Malaan sits at 164 km, about halfway. Next is back through Component around Hugh Nelson Range.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Component around Hugh Nelson Range write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Component around Hugh Nelson Range comes up about 299 km into the recorded legs. Next is Component around Curtain Fig.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Component around Curtain Fig write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Component around Curtain Fig closes the day.
Component around Curtain Fig → Component around Hugh Nelson Range is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Hugh Nelson Range → Component around Malaan is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Malaan → Component around Russell River is 101 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Component around Russell River → back through Component around Malaan is 106 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Component around Malaan → back through Component around Hugh Nelson Range is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component around Hugh Nelson Range → Component around Curtain Fig is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.