CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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 335 km round trip from Babinda - roughly 7 h 11 in the saddle. The stops in between: Main component, Component around Lake Barrine, Component around Hugh Nelson Range and Component around Curtain Fig. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Water arrives beside the road and stays for 35 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go — slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did.
For 25 km this is Atherton Tablelands Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
South of Cairns, the coastal plain narrows between the sea and a wall of mountains that includes Bartle Frere, at 1,622 metres the highest peak in Queensland, and its neighbour Bellenden Ker. The ranges here are covered in dense rainforest, among the oldest on earth, and they form part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland, listed by UNESCO in 1988.
Read the complete Component around Malbon Thompson and Graha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Component around Malbon Thompson and Graha is where the day begins. Next is Main component.
Inland from the cane fields south of Cairns, the land rears up into a wall of rainforest so dense that the ridgelines seem to steam after every shower. Gordonvale lies about fourteen kilometres to the north, Babinda a little further south, and the tableland town of Yungaburra up over the range to the west.
Read the complete Main component write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Main component comes up 26 km in. Next is Component around Lake Barrine.
Lake Barrine fills a volcanic crater on the Atherton Tablelands, a deep round lake fringed by dense rainforest, formed by a violent volcanic explosion many thousands of years ago when rising magma met groundwater. Its sister lake, Lake Eacham, lies a few kilometres away, and both are part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Site. The water is clear and deep, and the rainforest around it is home to some remarkable creatures: Lumholtz's tree kangaroos, musky rat-kangaroos, Boyd's forest dragons and many birds.
Read the complete Component around Lake Barrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
53 km in you reach Component around Lake Barrine. 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, about halfway. 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 sits at 105 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 131 km in. Next is back through Component around Lake Barrine.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Component around Lake Barrine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
158 km in you reach back through Component around Lake Barrine. Next is back through Main component.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Main component write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Main component, late in the day. Next is Component around Malbon Thompson and Graha.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Component around Malbon Thompson and Graha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 335 km.
Component around Malbon Thompson and Graha → Main component is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Main component → Component around Lake Barrine is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Lake Barrine → Component around Hugh Nelson Range is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Hugh Nelson Range → Component around Curtain Fig is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Curtain Fig → back through Component around Hugh Nelson Range is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component around Hugh Nelson Range → back through Component around Lake Barrine is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component around Lake Barrine → back through Main component is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Main component → Component around Malbon Thompson and Graha is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.