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 Babinda it runs 266 km to Babinda; allow about 6 h 05 of riding. It goes by way of Main component, Component around Curtain Fig, Component around Hugh Nelson Range and back through Component around Curtain Fig. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 27 km this is Atherton Tablelands Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 about 45 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 100 km into the recorded legs you reach Component around Curtain Fig. 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 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 sits at 108 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 221 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Component around Malbon Thompson and Graha closes the day.
Component around Malbon Thompson and Graha → Main component is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Main component → Component around Curtain Fig is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Curtain Fig → Component around Hugh Nelson Range is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Hugh Nelson Range → back through Component around Curtain Fig is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component around Curtain Fig → back through Main component is 55 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 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.