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 576 km round trip from Babinda - roughly 11 h 08 in the saddle. On the way it passes Component around Lake Barrine, Component around Hugh Nelson Range, Main component and Component around Malaan. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
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 about 97 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 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.
Component around Lake Barrine comes up about 58 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 96 km into the recorded legs you reach Component around Hugh Nelson Range. 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, about halfway. Next is Component around Malaan.
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 sits at 194 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 387 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 469 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Component around Hugh Nelson Range. 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.
back through Component around Lake Barrine, 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 576 km.
Component around Malbon Thompson and Graha → Component around Lake Barrine is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Lake Barrine → Component around Hugh Nelson Range is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Hugh Nelson Range → Main component is 94 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Main component → Component around Malaan is 97 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Malaan → back through Main component is 100 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Main component → back through Component around Hugh Nelson Range is 82 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 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component around Lake Barrine → Component around Malbon Thompson and Graha is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.