August 22, 2014 -

The end of this road up to Eungella is steep, sharp corners, and has drainage grates across the road which can be a hazard when wet. If you go 5 or so km passed Eungella to Broken River you can walk down alongside the river and might see platypus in the wild (best time is dawn or dusk, but I´ve seen them 3 times out of 5 in the middle of the day).

However, stopping at Pinnacle just a little short of Eungella is a good idea. There´s the Pinnacle Pub with its superb pies, order pie, chips and gravy, and the café just a couple of hundred metres further on in an old church which does great food and has outside seating under lovely shade trees.

There are a couple of side roads to take to improve this ride. You can take the Bruce Hwy north out of Mackay over the Ron Casey bridge, turn left at the first traffic lights on to Heaths Rd and straight on to Sugar Shed Rd. About 3 km from the turn off the Bruce Hwy turn left on to Maraju-Yakapari Rd, this takes you through some canefields close to the Pioneer River to Dumbleton and then the left turn onto the Pleystowe Connection RD. Cross the Pioneer River coming out to the Eungella Rd just out of Pleystowe and turn right towards Eungella.

On the way back, come down towards Marani (about 12 or 14 km from Pinnacle) and about a km before Marani turn left onto the Marani-Mt Ossa Rd. This road is narrower so some caution should be taken, especially in the cane harvesting season July - November when cane machinery may be on the road. But great corners through some nice scenery, about 35 to 40 km of nice twisty road through to the Bruce Hwy. At the Bruce Hwy turn right back towards Mackay, there´s a turn off to Seaforth/Cape Hillsborough just before The Leap and a good tearooms on the Cape Hillsborough Rd. The Leap Pub does a good rural pub lunch. Then it´s 15 km back to Mackay.

November 17, 2010 -

Good road, nice environment and excellent corners. The surface grip level can be a bit changeable so pay attention or ride it twice if you e planning on going for it.