Far North Queensland (FNQ) Pioneer Trail
For those seeking adventure further afield than Sydney here's an interesting story from Bike North member and avid off-road cyclist Greg Pointing:-
Escaping Sydney’s horrendous weather last month four of us were fortunate to ride for a week under blue skies and 25C temperatures on a relatively new 270km gravel loop which starts and ends in Atherton.
Getting there is pretty simple, a flight to Cairns and then a 90 minute bus ride from the airport to Atherton. I arrived a week earlier with my bike and hired a car to tour areas surrounding Cairns ranging from the Cassowary Coast, Mission Beach and Tully in the south, to Kuranda, Mareeba and then up north to Port Douglas and The Daintree. As well as the many waterfalls and walks at each of these locations, there are also quite a few mountain biking opportunities.
The ride is suited to either gravel or mountain bikes, with most of the trail being good quality gravel interspersed with sealed sections closer to towns. The first 22km day from Atherton to Herberton starts on a gravel rail trail, but this lasts only for a couple of kilometres. When the rail trail is rejoined, the trail actually rides along the side of the tracks and can be slow going if grass has grown. This is the only section where a mountain bike is preferred otherwise a gravel bike is a good choice.
For those wanting to hire e-mountain bikes for the Pioneer trail, they can be obtained in Atherton from one of the developers of the trail Peter Blakey. He is a wealth of knowledge and very passionate cyclist. If you do the trail as a 5 day trip, there is no need for range anxiety as the 750kWh batteries will easily do the longest days as the amount of climbing is fairly small.
While the riding on the trail was very good, the best part of the trip for us was the amazing people we met along the way. Because the towns visited are mostly very small, people are happy to go out of their way to help cyclists. On day 2 we rode through the village of Irvinebank, population 100. It contains no shops, but knowing this we contacted a retired lady who prepared a very nice brunch for us in the grand old town hall. That night we stopped in Petford, population 30? at an old school now owned by Shane and Helen. They bought the school 3 years ago and have transformed it into a tropical oasis for up to 30 people in an assortment of accommodation ranging from an old train, to a building from the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
Many of the towns visited have interesting attractions including museums, swimming holes, hot springs etc. Clearly this is a trail that can only really be ridden for about 3 months each year, due to either high temperatures or rainfall which can make many of the roads impassable. The following advice is taken from the official trail website.
This multi-day trip is very remote. There is no telephone coverage for most of the trip. Although the distances are quite long the terrain is comparatively easy and while there is accommodation available each night, there is little or no opportunity to obtain food or water
each day. Therefore, it is very important to carry your food and water requirements for each day.
With pre-planning, there is no need to carry anything other than emergency food, but water is critical.
The official FNQ Pioneer trail website is excellent and provides most of the details needed to complete the trail.
Far North Queensland Pioneer Bike Trail – Cycling FNQ's historic outback and savannah trails
This site also gives a good description of the trail
The Far North Queensland Pioneer Bike Trail |