Mt Surprise to Port Douglas
8 May 2019
Master Map
Far North Queensland is where Pterodactyl comes from — his 'place of origin' in the favoured idiom at the time of writing — and this day was about some visits to important places in his early life. It would also mark the first day we had descended from the plateau of the Great Dividing Range since climbing it shortly after leaving Brisbane.
A termite mound, one of thousands beside the road in this country
A food stop in Mt Garnet
These clay tennis-court-coloured roads appear all over this part of Queensland
One of the things I really like about FNQ is that the mountains, although not remotely tall by world standards, rise steeply from the sea. There is often a very short plain between the edge of the water and the foothills. The next pictures show these mountains coming into view as we made our way east. They also show that there is considerably greater rainfall nearer the coast providing lovely rainforest. The ancient Daintree rain forest, north of Cairns and Port Douglas is a World Heritage area.
We stopped for fuel and a drink in Malanda before making our way to the Gillies Range Road for the descent into Cairns. I took no photos as I was too busy concentrating on the road—a series of corners beautifully made for motorcyclists. They were worth the effort, and with almost none of the switchbacks that I find the CB1100 doesn't much like. That may be code for I don't much like them. Who knows?
This section of the road is around 19 kilometres long and amongst the best I've ridden. Motorcycle heaven.
The Gillies Range Road — clicking on the map will take you to an interactive view
After a couple of stops in Cairns, we made our way north along the lovely coast road. It's 27 kilometres from Ellis Beach to Oak Beach, and the road runs along the narrow strip of flat-ish land between the Coral Sea and the Great Dividing Range. Our destination was the tourist town of Port Douglas. It's hot, it's tropical and it provides easy access to the Great Barrier Reef, but the beach is not nearly so lovely as more southern beaches. And it's ridiculously hot in the summer. For a young, itinerant person, it's a place of endless opportunity.
A view from the coast road between Cairns and Port Douglas
