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 448 km round trip from Mission Beach - roughly 7 h 16 in the saddle. The stops in between: Component around Edmund Kennedy, Component around Mission Beach, Component around Cowley and Component around Russell River. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 71 km this is Atherton Tablelands Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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.
Component around Kurrimine Beach is where the day begins. 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.
Component around Edmund Kennedy comes up about 65 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 108 km into the recorded legs you reach Component around Mission Beach. 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.
Component around Cowley, about halfway. 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 sits at 202 km, about halfway. 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.
back through Component around Cowley comes up about 298 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 340 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Component around Mission Beach. Next is back through 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.
back through Component around Edmund Kennedy, late in the day. Next is Component around Kurrimine Beach.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Component around Kurrimine Beach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 448 km.
Component around Kurrimine Beach → Component around Edmund Kennedy is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Edmund Kennedy → Component around Mission Beach is 43 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 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
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 → back through Component around Edmund Kennedy is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component around Edmund Kennedy → Component around Kurrimine Beach is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.