Dai The Dragon in The Press
Dai has been featured in a number of newspapers including:
- Monmouthshire Beacon
- Monmouth Free Press
- South Wales Argus
- Western Daily News
- The Sun!
Following the article in the National press (The Sun), a number of newspapers from around the world have requested photographs and details of his travels....standby for details!
He has also featured on BBC Radio Wales 'Drive Time' show
Dai in The Sun (Britain's highest selling newspaper!) Saturday 5th July 2008
Article in Monmouth Free Press June 2008
DAI, THE GLOBE-TROTTING DRAGON TRAVELS THE SEA...TO TEACH THE CHILDREN SIMPLE GEOGRAPHY
BY JANET HUGHESJ.HUGHES@BEPP.CO.UK - Western Daily News, June 2008
04 July 2008
He's travelled around the globe nearly eight times and visited most of the world's top tourist attractions.
From the pyramids of Egypt to the Niagara Falls in Canada, Dai has managed to see them all without once packing his passport or leaving a single carbon footprint behind.And although he returns with holiday snaps of himself at interesting places such as the top of the Empire State Building or Nelson Mandela's jail on Robben Island, the mysterious redhead never bores his friends back home with long-winded holiday stories.
Even on his travels he avoids arguments with his companion by staying tightlipped and whether they choose to drink San Miguel and eat paella in sunny Spain, top up their tans in the Caribbean or catch up with ancient culture in China, Dai always manages to have a good time in his own quiet way.
Even when visiting trouble spots like the Middle East and South America, he is the textbook tourist and always comes home safely to his Monmouthshire home.
The nearest he came to danger was on a trip to Cornwall when he tumbled to the base of a cliff while rock climbing and needed an emergency operation to replace his tail.
For Dai is a globetrotting dragon, a school mascot who hitches a lift in the suitcases of pupils, parents or anyone else travelling to far flung corners of the world that take his fancy.
Over the past few years he has covered more than 200,000 miles, nearly enough to get to the moon and nearly eight times the circumference of the equator.
At the moment the cuddly dragon is recovering at home after a gruelling 14,842-mile round trip to the North Pole where he braved sub-zero temperatures to help scientists from the University of Seattle with their experiments.
Now Dai the dragon is awaiting confirmation he can join the British Antarctic Survey expedition to the South Pole later this year.
But first he has to fit in visits to Pakistan, Belize, Malawi and America with families linked to the school.
Dai is the toy of Steve King who started taking him abroad because he thought it would be a good way to teach pupils about the world outside Monmouthshire. Once he persuaded security guards to switch off the alarms so he could take a picture of Dai sitting on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia and the cheeky head teacher sneaked him on the set of American Breakfast show, Your Morning for a snap with the presenters.
Thanks to Mr King, Dai has also met pop stars Bananarama, Westlife and Lemar.
But he really started clocking up the miles when Mr King took over the headship of Trellech Primary in the Wye Valley and the children now need a website and a giant map to keep track of their globetrotting mascot as he covers every part of the globe.
Mr King said: "When you live in a small leafy village like Trellech it's easy to forget about the world that exists outside Monmouthshire and how different it can be. This is a fun way to teach children subjects such as maths, English and geography, as well as help them understand concepts like carbon footprints and global citizenship.
"They can hold him and say 'Wow' he's been there' and point out the places on the globe. When you ask people to take him anywhere, they usually say yes because of the novelty value. He's a good travelling companion and I think the blokes who took him to the North Pole took a shine to him."