Why this ride
The stops in between: Limpinwood Nature Reserve, Nightcap National Park and back through Limpinwood Nature Reserve. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Mount Chinghee National Park and Nightcap National Park
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 431 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 7 h 27
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Mount Chinghee National Park
Mount Chinghee is one of those small national parks that most people drive past without noticing, which is a shame, because it guards a beautiful pocket of the border ranges. It lies near the head of the Albert River valley south of Beaudesert, close to the Queensland and New South Wales border, and like its neighbours it forms part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage area. The trees here are the same subtropical rainforest types that once covered much of the old southern supercontinent, hanging on in the wetter folds of the ranges.
Read the complete Mount Chinghee National Park write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mount Chinghee National Park is where the day begins. Next is Limpinwood Nature Reserve.
2. Limpinwood Nature Reserve
Twenty-odd million years ago, a huge shield volcano stood where the Tweed valley is now, on what became the border between New South Wales and Queensland. Erosion has since carved out its centre, leaving one of the largest erosion calderas in the world, a vast bowl of green farmland ringed by cliffs and ridges, with the volcano's old central plug, Wollumbin, also known as Mount Warning, standing in the middle. Limpinwood Nature Reserve, on the northern rim of the caldera, protects a stretch of subtropical rainforest that is part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site preserving forests whose lineage goes back to the ancient supercontinent.
Read the complete Limpinwood Nature Reserve write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Limpinwood Nature Reserve comes up about 96 km into the recorded legs. Next is Nightcap National Park.
3. Nightcap National Park
Nightcap National Park covers a high, wet plateau and escarpment north of Lismore in New South Wales, the remains of the rim of an ancient volcano centred on Wollumbin, Mount Warning, whose eroded caldera forms one of the largest in the world. The plateau receives some of the highest rainfall in the state, and it is covered in subtropical rainforest, tall eucalypt forest and dramatic waterfalls, including Minyon Falls, which drops about a hundred metres over a cliff of volcanic rock. Nightcap is one of the Gondwana Rainforests reserves, and in 2000 it made headlines when scientists found a previously unknown tree, the Nightcap oak, surviving in only a few small populations here.
Read the complete Nightcap National Park write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 217 km into the recorded legs you reach Nightcap National Park. Next is back through Limpinwood Nature Reserve.
4. back through Limpinwood Nature Reserve
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Limpinwood Nature Reserve write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Limpinwood Nature Reserve, late in the day. Next is Mount Chinghee National Park.
5. Mount Chinghee National Park
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mount Chinghee National Park write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Mount Chinghee National Park. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Mount Chinghee National Park to Limpinwood Nature Reserve
Mount Chinghee National Park → Limpinwood Nature Reserve is 96 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Limpinwood Nature Reserve to Nightcap National Park
Limpinwood Nature Reserve → Nightcap National Park is 121 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nightcap National Park to back through Limpinwood Nature Reserve
Nightcap National Park → back through Limpinwood Nature Reserve is 121 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Limpinwood Nature Reserve to Mount Chinghee National Park
back through Limpinwood Nature Reserve → Mount Chinghee National Park is 96 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.