Mindil Beach

Our first day in Darwin was all about hooking up the van to some air conditioning (yeah!) and cooling down in the park's swimming pool. The theme here is HUMIDITY. After enjoying these luxuries we set of for the famed Mindil Beach Markets, a glorious mix of Territorian arts, crafts and cuisine.

The market atmosphere is jumping as locals and tourists both jostle up and down long winding rows of stalls selling tshirts, indigenous arts, wood carvings, croc and roo leather goods, happy hippy stuff, jewellery stalls etc. About a kilometre of food vans (seems like it anyway) showcase the wonderful mix that is Darwin's cultural scene - heavy On the Asian side of course but also a pinch of Greek and Russian too!

The other thing you do is head onto the beach in time for the sunset so along with a few hundred others, thats what we did. Many people were there with wine 🍷and chairs, so it's a real tradition here. Fire twirlers were out practicing their stuff after the sun melted away into a very calm Arafura sea. I couldn't work out why no one was swimming though - it was still over 30 degrees even at 7pm. The pano I took clearly shows everyone firmly planted on land. Eventually it dawned - nobody (except backpackers apparently) swims in any of these beaches because of crocodiles! How frustrating it must be - warm, humid temperatures plus gorgeous sandy beaches is a perfect combination. It's just that you might get eaten so, best not, hey?Read more