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Winter is the best time of year in the far north. Mild sunny days, 25 degrees. I decided to ride.
Instead of taking the Bruce Highway north from Townsville I rode west to the Hervey Range. This is the nearest curves to me but they last just a few kilometres.
I stopped in at the Hervey Range Tea Rooms. You can enjoy good food and coffee under shady trees with the company of Bush Turkeys.
But west from here there is not much in the way of scenery.
Plenty of long trucks.
After lunch and refueling at Greenvale I pushed on via the Kennedy Development road which would only become interesting if riding at 180kph but had few cars and no highway patrols.
Peaceful ride all the way to the Millstream falls, Ravenshoe.
I’m staying at the Club Hotel Ravanshoe, highest town in Queensland.
Decent room at reasonable price, but the food was poor. I later walked to the other pub (and only other thing open) to discover that is where everyone was eating. The menu and food looked much better and the beer cheaper so I stayed for a couple. Quite cold when I left and I needed to add another blanket to the bed during the night.
Cool start next morning. I visit part of the abandoned local rail line (being an ex rail guy).
I detoured off the tarmac to try reach the Herberton Range Lookout. The track got pretty rough and steep then had multiple junctions with no signage so I turned around but it was good warm up/confidence booster for me to tackle the Bloomfield Track tomorrow.
Arriving Atherton it popped into my head I had left my mini compressor and tyre plugs at home so I called into Super cheap to get a can of fix a flat. I never chance being stranded on tour with a flat.
I am struck by how much Atherton reminds me of Alstonville and the far northern NSW region. Lush green grass and red soil.
The inland road to Cooktown is much dryer with just a few gentle corners until I reached Bob’s lookout, Mount Windsor (above).
Here I notice my left boot is covered in what appears to be oil. Oh no.
I examine the engine carefully but it shows no leaks so I ride on.
The other bit of curves on this road is at James Earl lookout. (above/below) Here I find the source of my oil. Leaking left fork seal.
Fork seal is not a deal breaker so I carry on and arrive Cooktown. The temperature rose to 31 and humid. No winter up here.
Grassy Hill Lookout, Cooktown. (I waited patiently to get a photo without cars but they showed no signs of leaving this afternoon)
Superb accommodation tonight.
I have a whole house to myself. If you come here skip the hotel and look for J & Ellas Holiday house.
I had a nice dinner and cold beer at the Cooktown bowls club. Feeling at ease with myself and life as I always do when on the road.
Cooktown to Bloomfield road is mostly good condition and throws plenty of curves at you.
Riding on south from there the road turns to gravel but has plenty of concrete slab sections on floodways and on the many very steep hills.
This one 23% but there were at least two others way steeper that had no signage what the grade was.
This about the only spot on the Bloomfield Track where I had any view. It is all forested.
Despite being remote you do not get any feel of that thanks to the almost endless stream of Four wheel drives heading north.
Emmagen creek was the only thing I had any concern about but it was shallow.
Cape Tribulation and Daintree was very touristy and I literally found myself in bumper to bumper traffic. It is peak season up here and this is a place many tourists from Cairns drive to but I was still a little taken back with how busy it was.
Mount Alexandra lookout.
Nice spot to have lunch. I packed some food and drinks thinking the Bloomfield track would take more time but I crossed it quickly on the little G310GS which is so easy to ride on dirt weighing just 159kg but on the flip side is not a good highway bike.
I prepaid the Daintree ferry online last night and then showed the QR code on the ferry. I recommend for easy crossing.
Riding south on the Great Barrier Reef Drive the Macalister range was still being repaired from a cyclone and the combination of stop/go lights, low speed limits and lots of cars made a nice bit of road into a chore. But the views are still nice.
A road that has not been ruined is the Gillies highway. One of the best mountain roads in Australia it is phenomenally good. The little GS is heaps of fun here. My old Buell XB9S would be the perfect machine for this road or a supermotard. But 95% of riding I do in Australia is highway, 4% is twisty roads albeit all now having low speed limits and 1% gravel so which bike I get next really should reflect this better.
New addition to my Australian Wild Life road signage collection. This animal is the Tree Kangaroo. I have never seen one.
And the INXS song of same name is playing in my head as I ride on to Atherton.
I am a bit of a fan of fields with grass bails too just quietly.
Next morning I wake to rain. Must be only a passing shower I think as rain was not forecast. Hmm still raining much later when I am ready to leave.
I ride to the Atherton McDonalds and have some breakfast and coffee, kill some time thinking it should clear. Nope and the locals tell me looks like it will hang around all morning. Radar shows rain all the way south to Ingham so I don my Froggs Toggs rain gear and ride to Ravenshoe and then west to ride out of the rain back down the inland route.
Shame I had some waterfalls and other attractions planned on the coast road but staying dry wins.
With plenty of places with long view of nothing coming my way I wound the little 310 up to cover the ground faster but that made it drink fuel. I arrived Greenvale with just 9km left of range on computer.
Made a new friend at Greenvale over lunch. This guy sung me a little song each time I threw him a bit of bread roll.
Zero rain inland. Dry country out here and Townsville gets very little rain sitting in a rain shadow while the towns to the north and south have the highest rainfalls in Australia.
Well this is probably the last ride on my BMW G310GS. I will clean it up and get new tyres and sell it. Been fun runabout and let me visit a couple of bits of dirt I was curious of.
I’m not sure what I might buy next. I was very impressed with the BMW 1250GS I rode in Mexico and whilst I have a few ADV tours planned for overseas and everything motorcycling seems to be ADV now I have already done my time on dirt back in the 90’s and it doesn’t interest me much now.
I am considering not owning a bike in Australia and flying to the capital cities occasionally and renting. This would be much cheaper than actually owning a bike and there is nowhere local for me to ride. I’m trying to test this on a upcoming trip to Brisbane but the rental shops are located far outside the city making it very inconvenient.
Another option is I have a bike in storage in Brisbane. As mentioned there is no local riding here, nearest interesting road is a full day’s ride north or 1500km to the south. If I went down this path then the model bike I buy could be less about covering big distance and more sport touring.
If I did have a bike at home then it does need to cover huge distance in comfort and probably would be a full tourer. I’m interested to see what the 2025 BMW R1300RT will be like but I’d probably buy another FJR1300 over the BMW. A late model is a third of the price and does everything I need with easy home servicing making for very low ownership. But then I cannot get the Gold Wing I rode in USA out of my head. Such an impressive machine.
Oh well no rush to do anything.
Ohh new bike time. Can’t wait to see what you choose next. I thought that little GS was a bit small for Aussie roads, but probably great at dirt roads riding as its so light.
Another interesting tour mate. Interesting to see far north Qld, somewhere I’ve never ridden.
Hi Steve,
It’s a difficult decision – but we are also spoilt for choice now.
I must admit the BMW R1250GS I rode in Mexico was very good at everything. Even if I don’t ride any more gravel I need to remember how superbly it deals with everything else.