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.
299 km from Gordonvale to Gordonvale, about 6 h 11 of riding. The stops in between: Component around Malbon Thompson and Graha, Component around Lake Barrine, Component around Hugh Nelson Range and back through Component around Lake Barrine. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 35 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
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 Malbon Thompson and Graha.
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 comes up about 45 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 106 km into the recorded legs 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 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 sits at 139 km, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Component around Malbon Thompson and Graha comes up about 251 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Main component closes the day.
Main component → Component around Malbon Thompson and Graha is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Malbon Thompson and Graha → Component around Lake Barrine is 61 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 → 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 → back through Component around Malbon Thompson and Graha is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component around Malbon Thompson and Graha → Main component is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.