{"id":7241,"date":"2026-03-12T11:55:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T11:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=7241"},"modified":"2026-03-12T12:22:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T12:22:28","slug":"15-a-walk-in-the-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=7241","title":{"rendered":"15. A WALK IN THE PARK."},"content":{"rendered":"

The River Mooloolah is not a particularly grand river.\u00a0 It’s catchment area is not huge – certainly by Australian standards.\u00a0 In fact, it’s TINY at about 225 km\u00b2 compared with the approximately 1.2 million km\u00b2 which drain into Lake Eyre!\u00a0 (That’s about one sixth of the total area of the country.)\u00a0 Of course the area covered by Lake Eyre itself, when full, is best part of 50 times the whole of the Mooloolah’s catchment area.\u00a0 (In the near future, I think we may be discussing the frequency of Lake Eyre being full.\u00a0 But that’s another part of the story!)<\/p>\n

The Mooloolah flows to sea a couple of kilometres south of Mooloolaba at Point Cartwright.\u00a0 About a kilometre, before it reaches the sea, the south bank transmogrifies into a beautiful park.\u00a0 La Balsa Park.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

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Stretching from the boat ramp near Glenda’s brother’s house, it runs to the start of the walk around Point Cartwright.<\/span><\/p>\n

On a Sunday evening we took a stroll through the park.\u00a0 A stroll might be stretching a point!\u00a0 We parked our two camping chairs in the shade of a palm tree and settled down to watch the scenery and passing strollers!\u00a0 Very relaxing.\u00a0 As the sun started it’s slide toward the horizon, we did end up meandering along the riverside park.\u00a0 We discovered a complete spectrum of folk with the same idea as us.<\/p>\n

Immediately, we came across a couple of campers preparing their evening meal at the rear of their camper at the roadside.<\/p>\n

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It looked to us as if they were out-of-towners.\u00a0 Why else would they be struggling with their tiny gas cooker when, less than 50 m away, there was a free-to-use, council-provided (and cleaned) gas BBQ.\u00a0 Still Jean and Peter seemed content – and were probably preparing to camp just where they were parked!\u00a0 Rules here are quite relaxed about “wild” camping.<\/p>\n

Ten metres on, and we were accosted by Bill and Phil.\u00a0 Sitting on the tailgate of their ute which was jammed full of surf boards, wet suits and crates of beer.\u00a0 When we stopped for a chat, they told us that they couldn’t provide us with chairs, but beers were possible!<\/p>\n

Then we met a very distinguished family picnic.\u00a0 To maintain confidentiality we might call them Jake, Jane, Janet and Jonathan!\u00a0 Their territory boasted a carpet, a table with table cloth, proper camp chairs, “fizzy drinks” all round, nibbles AND flower arrangements.\u00a0 Two vases full!\u00a0 They also had a string of battery-powered lights for when dusk arrives!\u00a0 Very sophisticated!\u00a0 Very organised!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There are a lot of dog walkers out and about.\u00a0 Some actually walking and some just enjoying the evening light from the tailgate of their car.\u00a0 That’s Don and Diana by the way.<\/p>\n

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(The dogs, that is!).<\/p>\n

On the path we came face to face with Penny, a glamorous lady on a yellow bike (non-electric – good to see they still exist!).\u00a0 She reminded us of a Penny who Glenda met in very similar circumstances while I was in England.\u00a0 Except that Penny had a pink bike (or was it lurid green?\u00a0 It was distinctive, anyway!)\u00a0 The “original” Penny now lives out in the sticks, on the very edge of the ridge running south west-ish from Malaney.\u00a0 We are still hoping to visit this trip!<\/p>\n

Another very distinguished group of young ladies was having a “Galentine’s” celebration.\u00a0 That’s Valentine’s for gals, we were told.\u00a0 They were all making jewellery as a group activity.\u00a0 Again super-highly organised.\u00a0 Obviously they had a good team-leader!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I volunteered to photograph them, hoping for an email address to send the photo too.\u00a0 That ruse didn’t work, I was just given ten phones with which to take ten photos!\u00a0 Canny girls!\u00a0 Sorry, I’ve forgotten all their names!<\/p>\n

We were buzzed by a group of lads riding e-bikes and scooters.\u00a0 They were past too quickly to get a photograph!\u00a0 Queensland is about to bring in legislation raising the legal age for riding e-bikes by two years to fourteen, outlawing the upgrading of their power, mandating helmets and introducing a licensing scheme.\u00a0 Possibly increasing parental responsibility for their wayward (mainly) sons.\u00a0 Good luck with all of that!<\/p>\n

A group of tai chi enthusiasts were actively engaged in celebrating an afternoon outing.\u00a0 They normally meet at 06.30 opposite La Balsa caf\u00e9.\u00a0 So here they were at same sort of place.\u00a0 But totally different “climatic” conditions!\u00a0 “We need more shade!”<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A lady (Barbara) was quietly trundling along the pathway in her electric wheel-chair with her companion (Brenda) in tow.\u00a0 Well below any speed limit, but still enjoying the atmosphere in a refined sort of way.<\/span><\/p>\n

One family picnic was disturbed by the urge to fish.\u00a0 The young lad in question managed to catch a fish as we walked past … then another as we walked back.\u00a0 Dad was required to unhook and return the fish to the river.\u00a0 In all of our visits to this park over the years I have only ever witnessed two fishing successes previously.\u00a0 So this lad holds a record as far as we are concerned.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A game of badminton was in progress in one of the relatively open spaces.\u00a0 However, the world champions of the sport, shouldn’t be too worried about the competition.<\/p>\n

Of course, there are always those who prefer to experience the park from.the water!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There were a number of young women lying flat out in full sun.\u00a0 Baring virtually everything!\u00a0 Why do they do that?\u00a0 Haven’t they heard how bad the rays are for you – even if the effects are not always apparent until later in life.\u00a0 (That reminds me, following a full skin check, I have to have four bits of my precious skin removed next Wednesday!)\u00a0 To be fair to the girls, the heat was going out of the late afternoon sun, but even so …\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

By the way, I was disallowed from photographing said bodies by my editor-in-chief.<\/span><\/p>\n

So many different ways to celebrate the same thing – a peaceful evening in the park!<\/p>\n

We had to get back to our chairs for a rest after all that exertion.\u00a0 To enjoy our drink of water, with no nibbles, no flowers and certainly no battery operated illuminations!<\/p>\n

But, that was a Sunday afternoon well spent!\u00a0 And, perhaps, a good point at which to end this episode!\u00a0 Remind me to tell you about the slippery steps in Vietnam some time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The River Mooloolah is not a particularly grand river.\u00a0 It’s catchment area is not huge – certainly by Australian standards.\u00a0 In fact, it’s TINY at about 225 km\u00b2 compared with the approximately 1.2 million km\u00b2 which drain into Lake Eyre!\u00a0… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vietnam-and-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7241"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7307,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7241\/revisions\/7307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}