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 541 km round trip from Gordonvale - roughly 9 h 48 in the saddle. On the way it passes Component around Hugh Nelson Range, Component around Lake Barrine, Component around Russell River and Component around Moresby Range. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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 60 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.
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 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 comes up about 81 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 131 km into the recorded legs you reach Component around Lake Barrine. Next is Component around Russell River.
Rain is the first fact of life along the Russell River. The river drains the eastern slopes of the Bellenden Ker Range, south of Cairns in far north Queensland, and these mountains, including Bartle Frere, at 1,622 metres the highest peak in the state, catch the moist trade winds off the Coral Sea and wring out some of the heaviest rainfall in Australia. The result is a dense, steaming tropical rainforest that tumbles down the mountains to the coastal plain, part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area, listed in 1988. It is one of the oldest continuously surviving rainforests on earth.
Read the complete Component around Russell River write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Component around Russell River, about halfway. Next is Component around Moresby Range.
Innisfail had to rebuild itself after a cyclone flattened much of the town in 1918, and it chose to do so in the latest style. As a result, this sugar town on the Johnstone River has one of the finest collections of Art Deco buildings in Australia, with colourful façades, geometric patterns and elegant shopfronts lining the main streets. Just to the east, the Moresby Range runs down to the coast in a band of steep, rainforest-covered hills, part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage area, one of the oldest continuously surviving tropical rainforests on earth.
Read the complete Component around Moresby Range write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Component around Moresby Range sits at 176 km, about halfway. Next is back through Component around Russell River.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Component around Russell River write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Component around Russell River comes up about 324 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 408 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Component around Lake Barrine. 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, 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.
The route ends here after 541 km.
Main component → Component around Hugh Nelson Range is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Hugh Nelson Range → Component around Lake Barrine is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Lake Barrine → Component around Russell River is 77 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Russell River → Component around Moresby Range is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component around Moresby Range → back through Component around Russell River is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component around Russell River → back through Component around Lake Barrine is 84 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component around Lake Barrine → back through Component around Hugh Nelson Range is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component around Hugh Nelson Range → Main component is 94 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.