Akoonah Market and Berwick pub

Every Sunday morning Berwick has a market that is a cross between a car boot sale and a proper market. Kerry, Arlene’s friend said that she would be going to it this week as her parents were here if we wanted to come along. They had carol singers, clothes stalls, fruit stalls, everything really and we had an enjoyable couple of hours. Claire found some crazy sunglasses and I bought 4 varieties of local cheeses to try when Ian and Jane come this Thursday. Kerry’s dad bought a big green glass vase to go in Kerry’s new house. We had a tour around her house before we went to the market but found it hard to find as the satnav didn’t know it existed and nor did the local Melways (a local map directory, I guess that the Sydney one will be called sydways). She has a huge house in a new housing estate; her smallest bedroom was bigger than our largest one. The main bedroom had a walk in wardrobe, spa bath, separate double shower and a separate cubicle toilet; it was massive. They all have huge open plan kitchen/ dinning/ lounge areas over here; I love them. Sorry, I didn’t take any photos as David, Kerry’s dad thought I looked like a tourist when we first arrived with my camera around my neck and it got banished into Claire’s saddle bag. Just time for a flat white before heading off to the market.

Once we had our bags full with market produce we were off to the only pub in Berwick called the Berwick Inn, which was first established in 1856, for lunch. I was excited to see that they have Pokies before you get to the bar; a whole room of them. They are like electronic one arm bandits that eat your money faster than you can eat your lunch. They are immensely complicated with flashing lights everywhere and noises all the time. They have 50 different ways to win so it should be easy to make a fortune but what they don’t tell you is that there are 50 thousand ways to loose. I had a go and only lost one dollar because I didn’t have any more change. Kerry’s mum managed to walk away with $15 but I think she put $20 in to start with.

The Berwick In is a very popular venue and it was packed so it’s a good job that Kerry booked a table for us. For lunch I tried the kangaroo steak or Skippy as it’s known locally while Claire had chicken stuffed with something or other, Kerry was good and had the smoked salmon Caesar salad, Leslie (Kerry’s mum) had chicken Kiev while David was disappointed with the pensioners calamari. I loved the kangaroo, it was delicious. Kangaroo is a very popular meat over here so that’s probably why there are none left in the wild. We have given up on spotting a kangaroo until we get further up north.