Maclean

After our nightmare adventure with the crazy man, we felt like we could do with some TLC and nice things and so made sure to keep clear of anything that remotely smacked of adventure, at least for a little while. And guess what we found! We found Maclean. The Scottish Town. Oh yes, and it's also The Tidy Town. Apparently it won awards for both these things. They also have a big Highland Games on every year and are twinned with Portree on the Isle of Skye.

It's a very small town that was founded by Scottish settlers and many have never left, so there are generations of Scots in the town. It's all about tartans and the drink and the history of it. I think Maclean is actually becoming more Scottish than any of the actual Scottish towns.

Anyway, everyone was very nice and by way of decoration, they painted all the electricity poles in the town with different tartans of the clans who live in Maclean. We looked around and went to the information centre and lo and behold, we found the Munro Pole. Yeah! It's on the entrance to the village next to a sugar cane field. So that's where we took the pictures!

At the information centre, we met this really nice old lady, whose grandparents had come over from Scotland. She'd never been, but was going to go there in July for the first time with her daughter and grandaughter and she was so excited! It was very sweet.

She told us also about the canefields. Every year before they cut the cane, they set it on fire from all four sides of the field and it makes the biggest most spectacular blaze. They do it to drive out all the snakes and rats and spiders who make the field their home and then they go and cut the cane. After spending the night in one of the carparks in town, we strolled around a bit more and just enjoyed the peace and quiet of this tiny town.