Little Mindil Beach

Cullen Bay - a marina, ferry terminal, restaurants, shops and apartments - turned out to be near Larrakeyah Lodge where I stayed in 1985. I couldn’t remember a marina, then discovered the whole development only dates from the early 1990s. Larrakeyah Lodge, on the other hand, formerly the sisters’ quarters for the Old Darwin Hospital, no longer exists.

We followed a sign down Nurses Walk to the untouristy end of Mindil Beach. At one end someone had set up a rough shelter half-hidden by bushes. Litter was strewn along the tideline. But there were spiral shells on the damp sand and scores of hermit crabs on the move in their scavenged shells.

Extras: Hermit crabs and Mindil Beach sunset a few days ago.