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.
434 km from Cardwell to Cardwell, about 7 h 11 of riding. It goes by way of Component around Mission Beach, Component around Cowley, Component around Russell River and Component around Moresby Range. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 72 km this is Atherton Tablelands Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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.
Component around Edmund Kennedy 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 Cowley.
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.
about 84 km into the recorded legs you reach Component around Cowley. 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 Component around Moresby Range.
Innisfail had to rebuild itself after a cyclone flattened much of the town in 1918, and it chose to do so in the latest style. As a result, this sugar town on the Johnstone River has one of the finest collections of Art Deco buildings in Australia, with colourful façades, geometric patterns and elegant shopfronts lining the main streets. Just to the east, the Moresby Range runs down to the coast in a band of steep, rainforest-covered hills, part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage area, one of the oldest continuously surviving tropical rainforests on earth.
Read the complete Component around Moresby Range write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Component around Moresby Range sits at 182 km, about halfway. Next is back through Component around Russell River.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Component around Russell River write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Component around Russell River comes up about 272 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through 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.
about 349 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Component around Cowley. 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 Edmund Kennedy.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Component around Edmund Kennedy write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 434 km.
Component around Edmund Kennedy → 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 Cowley is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Cowley → Component around Russell River is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Russell River → Component around Moresby Range is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Moresby Range → back through Component around Russell River is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component around Russell River → back through Component around Cowley is 77 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component around Cowley → back through Component around Mission Beach is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component around Mission Beach → Component around Edmund Kennedy is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.