An epic adventure through the Numinbah Valley is like stepping into a cross between a country lane and a magical rainforest. It is a valley that runs from South East Queensland’s scenic rim to Northern New South Wales and Byron Bay. It is without doubt one of the best places to ride in Queensland. Added to the breath taking scenery is that we are travelling by adventure motorcycles.
The road under the rainforest is damp, with slight hints of green lichen, moss grows in the shadows. It’s not the type of road you would want to ride fast on any bike, let alone a fully loaded adventure machine. The mottled greens, browns and golden light that filters through the forest canopy, bathe the area in a fairytale hue of magnificent natural colours. A road sign warns an appropriate speed for the corner is 30 kilometres per hour. I check my speed, I’m doing close to 90.
I back off the throttle and pull gently on the front brake to wash off some speed and keep Emu straight as I approach. The corner is tight and descending into a hair pin crescent. I’m down to 60 as I enter the corner, it’s a good speed. But I have to lean a little harder than normal to keep my line, I’m hoping the off-road tyres hold as I lean harder, putting all my weight into the road. It feels like a long time, but it’s really only seconds before I bring Emu straight, and power out of the corner.
Beechmont to the Border
My brother and I were on a two-week adventure ride that incorporated three days at the Horizon’s Unlimited conference in Thornton near Laidley. Which is in the Lockyer Valley in South East Queensland. We had decided to ride to Byron Bay in Northern NSW after the conference and explore the Scenic Rim in the hills behind the Gold Coast. Rather than ride the direct route down the congested Gold Coast and Hume Highway, we chose to make our journey and epic adventure through the Numinbah Valley, which is the inland route between two national parks.
The valley sits between the Beechmont Range, the Springbrook and Lamington National Parks. It also runs along the Western side the Hinze Dam before making its way past the Natural Bridge and over the border. A short ride down the range to Murwillumbah in Northern New South Wales (NSW) caps off and awesome adventure. We would then join up with the remnants of the old coastal road to get to Byron Bay.
First time adventure riding
I had been talking about adventure riding with my older brother for some years now. He even read my book Gun Fights, Ghosts and Goannas. It’s one of those moments where you look seriously at him and say “I didn’t know you could read”. Daryl has always been into motorcycles, and adventure riding was something that he had dreamed about for some time. When I mentioned I was coming to the Horizon’s Unlimited Conference in Thornton, he agreed to join me.
If you’re a long time reader of my blogs or adventure books, you will know I ride a KLR 650 dual sport who goes by the name of Emu. My brother is a fan of the Himalayan 411. It’s a bike that suits him and a very good all-rounder, capable for any adventure. Its just not the fastest bike. We set off from his home in Maroochydore for a day’s ride to Thornton. After the conference, we decided to continue on to Byron Bay. If you are new to adventure riding and want to know what gear I use for my camp setup, check out my blog post: Essential gear for adventure motorcycle touring.
Winding through the Scenic Rim
The Scenic Rim is a marketing campaign for what used to be called the Gold Coast Hinterland. It’s basically the mountains and valleys that sit behind the glitzy sunshine strip known as the Gold Coast. It’s in my opinion the most interesting part of South East Queensland. The Scenic Rim extends from the just north of Oxenford to the southern Queensland border and as far west as the Great Dividing Range near the towns of Stanhope, Warwick and Toowoomba.
We have spent the past three days at Thornton in the Lockyer Valley, a rich agricultural district in between the Beechmont Range and the Great Dividing Range. I’ve written about this on my blog story about what it means to be an adventure rider: What does it mean to be an adventure rider?. If you are looking for a definitive guide to riding the Scenic Rim you can go past the two guides produced by Bridgit and Alan at Throw Your Leg Over.
Starting our adventure in Canungra… again
It seems that an adventure ride in the scenic rim always starts at the biker hangout “The Outpost Café” in Canungra. From Canungra we have a couple of options, ride directly east to Nerang or turn right just out of town and head over the Beechmont Range to Beechmont. The road then spirals down the side of a cliff before dropping-down into the Numinbah Valley. We take the second option, the road up to Beechmont is a twisty, bumpy adventure. It’s one of those unofficial racetracks. As I lean into a corner I can hear a high revving engine behind me and in no time a red blur followed by a green blur whisk past me on the straight. Its not really a straight, more like a pause in the corners.
Like the Mount Glorious Road discussed in my story on the Riding the Back Road to Gympie, this road to has claimed its share of young café racers, and it’s no wonder there is a heavy police presence in the area. I’ve ridden this road on my Royal Enfield Continental GT650 Café Racer. While I can get fairly low on some of these corners, I’m definitely not wearing any tire rubber off the massive chicken strip, its just too unpredictable and bumpy.
At the top of the hill climb is one of the most spectacular cafes in the region, it looks out of the Numinbah Valley and directly opposite the launch zone for hang gliders. In the photo above you can see our destination for the day, with Murwilumbah on the eastern side of Mount Warning.
Valley Ride
Once we drop down from Beechmont towards Nerang the road drops steeply throught twists and turns until we reach an intersection. The choice is to continue to Nerang or turn right on the Numinbah Road. We turn right and head towards the border, along the way there are scenic places such as the Natural Arch. The Arch is a spectacular water fall with a big hole through the rocks. This seems to tempt adventurous young men who have survived the Beechmont TT to further show their lack of commonsense and disdain for life. A jump through the hole in the rock to the river below seems to be a right of passage. However, with mounting paraplegics and dead youth the council is trying to disaude jumper from the activity.
There are a number of camping sites along the road including the Cricklewood Cricket Club, the Numinbah Valley Bush Camp and Bochow Park.
Numinbah is a picturess community with coffee and craft shops, a school and an art centre. The road runs between the Springbrook National Park and the Lamington National Park (Nothing to do with Australia’s favorite cake). It twists and turns and slowly climbs until you reach the New South Wales, Queensland Border. At the border you get a view down to the coast, the topology is dryer and there is more agricultural land. The border is marked by a small rock on a hill, that if you weren’t paying attention, you’d miss. After a short break to admire the view and to wait for my brother to arrive on his not so quick Royal Enfield Himalayan 411, we continued on to Murwullimbah to find a camping site for the night.
No room in Murwullimbah
Arriving in Murwullimbah, we started to looking around for a place to pitch our tents. After hunting down some caravan parks, and finding there was no room for tents due to wet ground. We then go to the show ground, but they have rules that state you must be self-contained. While we were self-contained they still didn’t want us camping on the grass or pitching tents out the back on the tar or concrete. There was absolutely no negotiation on this point. This meant there was no camping in Murwullimbah and no alternatives. As we rode out of town we came across a small community called Tumbulgum. Tumbulgum is a beautiful community on the bend of the Tweed River, it looked like one of those communities that would flood in heavy wet seasons, but as it had stood for a hundred years we decided to look around.
Wild Camping
Needing a toilet break we pulled up at the public toilets next to the Tumbulgum Hall, beside the hall was a small bit of green grass. Just big enough for two tents, in the waning afternoon we made the decision to camp there the night. The bikes secured behind the toilet block and the tents tucked neatly into the side of the hall we were as incompicuous as possible. I saw a couple out the front of their house and asked if they minded us camping near the hall. They were very welcoming and had no problems with our precence.
That night instead of our usual dehydrated means we wandered down to the local pub and enjoyed a few ales with a Chicken Parmigiana, chips and salad. Apart from the rain in the night and the occasional possum that set off the security lights, we managed to get a good night’s sleep.
Back Road to Byron Bay
The rest of the trip to Byron was a combination of back roads, popping up onto the M1 and then trying to make our way to the old coastal roads that used to lead directly from the Tweed Coast to the Byron surf. In one way nothing had changed from when I used to go to Byron in my 20s. But in other ways there were more suburban enclaves, less casual wondering and more having to face the fast and hectic motorway. Byron Bay itself hadn’t changed much, although I did notice more advertising for legal services and financial planning where surf shops, backpackers and SCUBA diving shops had been. The roads out from Byron were continually congested when in the past they had been mere back roads, now they were lined with million-dollar houses.
Camping a Byron
We found a campground just south of Byron and set up our tents, washed and dried our clothes and made dinner. It had been a long day of trying to find our way through suburbia. There was no chance to enjoy the beach or find a cheap restaurant, most of the places were high-end catering for the tourist market. We stayed one night and then made our way back the way we had come, ending our journey in Oxenford at my mate Dave’s place. Daryl rode back to the Sunshine Coast, I stayed with Dave and Mandy for a few red wines and some reminiscing from our last escapade.
An epic adventure through the Numinbah Valley is an adventure you can make time and time again and not get bored. There is so much to see and do along the way and pubs, cafes and scenic vistas to explore. I will definately have to return again and a gain. As an alternative to riding the highway this trail can be beaten. You can check out the next stage of my journey on the post: Riding the Back Road to Gympie. If you got this far congratulations and thanks for reading. Hopefully, I’ll see you on the road, safe riding. If you like my stories, don’t forget to pick up a copy of my books.