Why this ride
285 km from Nimbin to Nimbin, about 6 h 23 of riding. On the way it passes Mount Warning National Park, Limpinwood Nature Reserve, Numinbah Nature Reserve and Amaroo Flora Reserve.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Nightcap National Park and Amaroo Flora Reserve
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 285 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 6 h 23
- 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: 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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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
Nightcap National Park is where the day begins. Next is Mount Warning National Park.
2. Mount Warning National Park
Wollumbin, as the Bundjalung people call it, rises on the Queensland border like a huge broken tooth, the central plug of the eroded Tweed volcano. Captain Cook saw it from the sea in 1770 and named it Mount Warning, as a signal of the dangerous reefs offshore. At just over eleven hundred metres it is not high, but standing alone above a vast bowl, ringed by the cliffs of the old crater rim, it looks far greater. It is often said to be the first place on the Australian mainland to catch the sun each morning, though that depends on how you measure.
Read the complete Mount Warning National Park write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mount Warning National Park comes up about 57 km into the recorded legs. Next is Limpinwood Nature Reserve.
3. 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
about 93 km into the recorded legs you reach Limpinwood Nature Reserve. Next is Numinbah Nature Reserve.
4. Numinbah Nature Reserve
On the New South Wales side of the border range above the Gold Coast hinterland, the land rises into steep, forested ridges that are the eroded rim of the ancient Tweed Volcano. Numinbah Nature Reserve protects a slice of this country, a jumble of rainforest gullies, eucalypt slopes and rocky outcrops, looking south across the great green bowl of the Tweed valley towards the sharp peak of Wollumbin, also known as Mount Warning.
Read the complete Numinbah Nature Reserve write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Numinbah Nature Reserve, about halfway. Next is Amaroo Flora Reserve.
5. Amaroo Flora Reserve
Behind the coast of northern New South Wales, the Tweed valley sits inside the remains of an enormous shield volcano that erupted some twenty-odd million years ago. Erosion has carved away the centre, leaving a huge caldera, one of the largest in the world, with the steep, forested walls of the Border Ranges and the McPherson Range curving around it and the volcanic plug of Wollumbin, also known as Mount Warning, rising in the middle. The Amaroo Flora Reserve lies on the slopes of this landscape, part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, a UNESCO site of scattered reserves along the Great Dividing Range.
Read the complete Amaroo Flora Reserve write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Amaroo Flora Reserve sits at 79 km, about halfway. Next is back through Numinbah Nature Reserve.
6. back through Numinbah Nature Reserve
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Numinbah 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 Numinbah Nature Reserve comes up about 170 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Limpinwood Nature Reserve.
7. 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
about 192 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Limpinwood Nature Reserve. Next is back through Mount Warning National Park.
8. back through Mount Warning National Park
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mount Warning National Park write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Mount Warning National Park, late in the day. Next is Nightcap National Park.
9. Nightcap National Park
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
The route ends here after 285 km.
Leg by leg
Nightcap National Park to Mount Warning National Park
Nightcap National Park → Mount Warning National Park is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mount Warning National Park to Limpinwood Nature Reserve
Mount Warning National Park → Limpinwood Nature Reserve is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Limpinwood Nature Reserve to Numinbah Nature Reserve
Limpinwood Nature Reserve → Numinbah Nature Reserve is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Numinbah Nature Reserve to Amaroo Flora Reserve
Numinbah Nature Reserve → Amaroo Flora Reserve is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Amaroo Flora Reserve to back through Numinbah Nature Reserve
Amaroo Flora Reserve → back through Numinbah Nature Reserve is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Numinbah Nature Reserve to back through Limpinwood Nature Reserve
back through Numinbah Nature Reserve → back through Limpinwood Nature Reserve is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Limpinwood Nature Reserve to back through Mount Warning National Park
back through Limpinwood Nature Reserve → back through Mount Warning National Park is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mount Warning National Park to Nightcap National Park
back through Mount Warning National Park → Nightcap National Park is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.