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.
799 km from Tallebudgera Valley to Tallebudgera Valley, about 15 h 26 of riding. It goes by way of Nightcap National Park, Border Ranges National Park, Mount Nothofagus Flora Reserve and Gilbert State Forest. Much of it runs through woodland.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Numinbah Nature Reserve is where the day begins. Next is Nightcap National Park.
2. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Nightcap National Park comes up about 118 km into the recorded legs. Next is Border Ranges National Park.
3. Border Ranges National Park
Twenty three million years ago a huge shield volcano stood over what is now the border between New South Wales and Queensland, and the Border Ranges are the remains of its northern and western rim. The volcano has long since eroded, leaving a vast caldera with the steep central plug of Wollumbin, also known as Mount Warning, rising in the middle, and a ring of cliffs and ridges around it covered in dense subtropical rainforest. The Border Ranges National Park protects a large part of that rim, and it is part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, a World Heritage Site that preserves forests whose ancestry goes back to the time when Australia was part of the supercontinent Gondwana.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 200 km into the recorded legs you reach Border Ranges National Park. Next is Mount Nothofagus Flora Reserve.
4. Mount Nothofagus Flora Reserve
Nothofagus is the botanical name of the southern beech, and the name of this reserve gives away its treasure: stands of Antarctic beech growing high on the McPherson Range along the Queensland–New South Wales border. These gnarled, moss-covered trees, some of them centuries old and sprouting from root systems far older still, are living relics of the forests that covered Gondwana before Australia drifted away from Antarctica.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mount Nothofagus Flora Reserve, about halfway. Next is Gilbert State Forest.
5. Gilbert State Forest
West of Brisbane, the Great Dividing Range rises as a dark wall above the plains, and Gilbert State Forest sits on its western slopes, where the rainforest of the escarpment gives way to drier eucalypt woodland and the farmland of the Darling Downs. To the east lies Main Range National Park, with its high peaks and steep cliffs; to the west, the land opens out towards Warwick and the wide grain fields beyond.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 799 km.
Leg by leg
Numinbah Nature Reserve to Nightcap National Park
Numinbah Nature Reserve → Nightcap National Park is 118 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nightcap National Park to Border Ranges National Park
Nightcap National Park → Border Ranges National Park is 82 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Border Ranges National Park to Mount Nothofagus Flora Reserve
Border Ranges National Park → Mount Nothofagus Flora Reserve is 104 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mount Nothofagus Flora Reserve to Gilbert State Forest
Mount Nothofagus Flora Reserve → Gilbert State Forest is 96 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gilbert State Forest to back through Mount Nothofagus Flora Reserve
Gilbert State Forest → back through Mount Nothofagus Flora Reserve is 93 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mount Nothofagus Flora Reserve to back through Border Ranges National Park
back through Mount Nothofagus Flora Reserve → back through Border Ranges National Park is 106 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Border Ranges National Park to back through Nightcap National Park
back through Border Ranges National Park → back through Nightcap National Park is 80 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Nightcap National Park to Numinbah Nature Reserve
back through Nightcap National Park → Numinbah Nature Reserve is 119 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.