From http://www.greaterhobarttrails.com.au/track/boronia-beach-track I understand that “Descending through the bushland past the cypress pines, to the clear blue secluded waters of Boronia Beach feels like you’ve stumbled into the Mediterranean. The historic private residence behind the beach is ‘Boronia’, which was once the Boronia Hotel (circa 1900). It was popular in the days when the old ferry docked at the jetty at Kingston Beach bringing day-trippers from Hobart. Folk would visit the hotel for a cup of tea and wander through its terraced rhododendron gardens down to Boronia Beach. The sheltered waters are great for snorkelling, with sea dragons commonly seen.”

Obviously I will need to return and have a closer look. On my recent walk I never saw the old house ‘Boronia’ (probably looking down to be careful placing my feet and not fall over) and I would have loved to look around the water for the sea dragons if I had known they might be swimming there. Oh well. Another time. This too will go onto my list of places I need to return to and discover more.

These findings have prompted one more memory. Last year in north eastern Tasmania authors and book readers travelled from all over Australia to attend the inaugural Golden Words Literary Festival.  I stayed in the township of Beauty Point and one afternoon wandered along the road until I found Seahorse World (http://www.seahorse-australia.com.au/). I never stepped inside the building but I learned that in Tasmania we have native seahorses and seadragons swimming in our oceans.  I was born in Tasmania.  How could I not have known that we had something so special out there in the briny seas. My experience at Beauty Point led me to draft a short story about the S bends of a very special cormorant and a feisty seahorse; the former trying to swallow the latter. I watched the flexible throat of a Pied Cormorant repeatedly trying to swallow a seahorse, however the curves of the marine animal never seemed to fit the curves of the Cormorant’s throat. Up and down and up and down the gullet the seahorse went. I watched this remarkable performance when I stood on the end of the Seahorse World jetty and was amazed that the seahorse survived to live another day.  Staff on the premises were amazed and had never witnessed such a feat. It was obviously a case of my being in the right place at the right time.  So … if I can return to Boronia Beach, I wonder what I might see.