A HOLIDAY goer visiting Malta was taken aback to see part of Warrington's culture drive past in the form of a huge Alice in Wonderland carnival float.

Mike Waller, from Appleton, was on holiday and was lucky enough to see the Malta Carnival in Valletta with its parade of extravagant floats.

Mike said: "All the towns in Malta do their own floats- they all base them on different themes. They are unbelievable!

"All of sudden Daresbury came past me and I couldn't believe it!

"I was going around telling people 'that's where I came from'."

The float included iconic characters from Daresbury-born Lewis Carroll's novels, which were brightly coloured with moving parts.

Mike even managed to snap a photo of a UK-inspired float, complete with Tom Jones.

Mike added: "Thousands and thousands of people come from all over the place to watch it- we were lucky to be there.

"The effort that must go into making them, I just didn't know there was that much that went into it."

The carnival is an important event on the religious and cultural calender where many people fast and avoid meat and sweets.

Carnival days bring out the silliness across Malta with the main attraction being the procession of brightly coloured floats travelling through the streets of Floriana and Valletta.