I finished my lunch on the south side of Browns River, crossed the pedestrian bridge over Browns River at 12.17 pm then proceeded along Osborne Esplanade (parallel and next to the Derwent River) towards the Kingston shops.  Over Christmas I holidayed in Kingston and my 3 posts titled I am on holiday watching over the Derwent River, Getting out into the air at Kingston Tasmania and Kingston Beach, Tasmania offer more information about this leg of my walk along the Derwent River.

I had the pleasure of meeting with Em for cups of tea and a long happy chat and saying hello to people I knew as they walked past the outdoor café Beachfront 32.  Immensely pleasant.

At 1.52 pm I restarted my walk southwards amidst foreshore joggers, walkers and seagulls – the sun was shining again and my world was warm.

By 1.59 pm I reached the Kingston Beach Sailing Club and could look back northwards across the sweep of water and the arc of Kingston’s white sandy beach.

The last photo looks north to the headland at the end of Tyndall Beach which was spread at the bottom of the southern end of the Alum Cliffs.

A minute later I reached the Boronia Beach Walking Track and turned left.

A gentle shady path meandered along above the water and I could hear happy voices on the rocks below.   The views through the trees were spectacular.

Up above me on my right were large houses with massive picture windows surrounded by high mesh fences. Then the landscape opened out and I could still look northwards to the Alum Cliffs where I had walked during the morning.

At 2.18 pm I reached a gate marking the entrance to the track down to Boronia Beach, a beach that I had previously not known existed.

By 2.24 pm I was walking on the beach.

I remembered the chitons which had featured on a public art work at Taroona Beach and wondered whether they could be found on this beach (refer back to my posting Public art works along the Derwent River –Taroona’s Chiton for more information). I checked the rocks but found none.  I  concluded the chitons must collect together only on the Taroona Beach rocks.

The rock formations at the southern end of the beach were a surprise.  The soft sandstone has been weathered and small caves were formed into the cliff.

Seeing these caves cast my mind back to Kalambaka in north western Greece. Last year I visited this town and marvelled at the stunning beauties of the Meteora (refer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteora for more information) Below is one of my photos showing the caves in some of the cliffs which hermits used to climb up and live in (and which Roger Moore as James Bond climbed over dramatically in the movie “For Your Eyes Only”).

Boronia Beach’s caves are smaller and different in many ways from those of the Meteora.  However they surprised me in this tucked away gem of a beach.

For those who loved the photo of mussels growing on Boronia Beach rocks which I provided in an earlier posting about the Stage 12 walk, here is another.

Five or so minutes later I began the trek uphill out of Boronia Beach under old pine trees.

I was horrified to see thousands of escaped ‘forget me not’ plants, some flowering as they carpeted lots of the area near the beach and up the hill. I pulled out a few dozen and their roots came out easily but a concerted effort of a few days’ work to remove these before they spread any further is essential if the wild bush is to stay as pure as it can.

A gate half way up the hill let me out onto a continuing walking track at 2.36pm.  Not long after I decided to sit on the steep steps and smell, look and listen to the environment. Very peaceful.

By 2.45pm  I was walking again and a couple of minutes later I reached a gate to exit the entire walking track area.

The entry was signed but, while the exit was easy, it was entirely unclear whether to turn left or right.  At the end of the dirt road in both directions I could see gates closed over the road.  Murphy’s Law has it that I will often make the wrong choice and it was no different at that point. I chose to walk down to the gate at the bottom of the road but found it entered into private property. Back up the road, lined one side with large girthed pine trees, I walked to the other gate and found no obstacle to walk around it. At 2.54 pm, I was continuing along the road watching a family of magpies fossicking in an open paddock, and later marvelling at an old crab apple and a pear tree both of which were laden with fruit.

At 3 pm I arrived at the junction with Kingston and Blackmans Bay’s main linking road, Roslyn Avenue.  The address for the dirt road on which I had been walking is Roslyn Ave 82-88, and it is directly across from Jindabyne St over the roundabout on Roslyn Ave.  One corner of the intersection is occupied by the Catholic Church of Christ the Priest and the Aloysius Primary School.