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.
From Atherton it runs 387 km to Atherton; allow about 5 h 58 of riding. It goes by way of Component around Russell River, Component around Kurrimine Beach and back through Component around Russell River. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 73 km this is Atherton Tablelands Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 116 km into the recorded legs. Next is Component around Kurrimine Beach.
Kurrimine Beach is a sleepy stretch of sand and coconut palms on the coast of Far North Queensland, between Innisfail and Mission Beach, and it sits at the meeting point of two World Heritage sites. Behind it, the rainforest-covered hills belong to the Wet Tropics of Queensland, listed by UNESCO in 1988 for their ancient forests, which are among the oldest continuously surviving rainforests on earth. In front of it, the Great Barrier Reef stretches out to sea. At very low tides, King Reef, just offshore, is exposed and you can walk out across the reef flats, one of the few places where the reef comes so close to the mainland.
Read the complete Component around Kurrimine Beach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 189 km into the recorded legs you reach Component around Kurrimine Beach. 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, late in the day. Next is 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 at Component around Hugh Nelson Range. That is the ride.
Component around Hugh Nelson Range → Component around Russell River is 116 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Component around Russell River → Component around Kurrimine Beach is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Component around Kurrimine Beach → back through Component around Russell River is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Component around Russell River → Component around Hugh Nelson Range is 122 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.