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.
502 km from Ravenshoe to Ravenshoe, about 8 h 12 of riding. It goes by way of Component around Curtain Fig, Component around Russell River, Component around Moresby Range and Component around Mission Beach. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 47 km this is Atherton Tablelands Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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.
Component around Malaan is where the day begins. Next is Component around Curtain Fig.
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 comes up about 47 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 135 km into the recorded legs you reach Component around Russell River. 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, about halfway. 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 sits at 200 km, about halfway. Next is back through Component around Moresby Range.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Component around Moresby Range write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Component around Moresby Range comes up about 305 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 361 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Component around Russell River. Next is back through 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.
back through Component around Curtain Fig, late in the day. Next is 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.
The route ends here after 502 km.
Component around Malaan → Component around Curtain Fig is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Curtain Fig → Component around Russell River is 88 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 → Component around Mission Beach is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Mission Beach → back through Component around Moresby Range is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through 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 Curtain Fig is 95 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component around Curtain Fig → Component around Malaan is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.