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 Gordonvale it runs 395 km to Gordonvale; allow about 6 h 53 of riding. It goes by way of Component around Malaan, Component around Cowley and back through Component around Malaan. 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 96 km this is Atherton Tablelands Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 96 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 197 km into the recorded legs you reach Component around Cowley. Next is back through 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.
back through Component around Malaan, late in the day. Next is 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 at Main component. That is the ride.
Main component → Component around Malaan is 96 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Malaan → Component around Cowley is 101 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Component around Cowley → back through Component around Malaan is 97 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Component around Malaan → Main component is 100 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.