Ultimate breakfast fan: Man spends £36,800 on travelling to 63 countries to find the perfect bowl of CORNFLAKES

Mick Hobday has undertaken his extraordinary challenge over ten years

He has eaten 4,000 bowls of cornflakes across five continents

Describes the breakfast cereal and travel as his 'two passions'



A cereal fan has spent a staggering £36,800 tasting cornflakes in 60 countries - in search of the perfect bowlful.

Married Mick Hobday, 33, munched his way through a massive 4,000 bowls of cornflakes while on his travels across five continents.

He has made numerous trips around the world over ten years and tries to buy only local brand flakes.

Saharan snack: Mick Hobday, 33, has travelled the world eating local brand cornflakes for ten years. Here he is seen chowing down on the cereal in Mauritania

Food pyramid: Mick pictured at the pyramids in Egypt. He has spent a staggering £36,800 tasting cornflakes in 63 countries

But Mick’s quest for the perfect flake continues, with a trip to India scheduled for later this year.

He describes his ideal cornflake as 'dark, crunchy, organic and locally grown'.

However, some cheaper, paler brands - mostly found in Asia and Africa - have tasted 'more like cardboard, and gone limp’, once soaked in milk.

Mick’s passion for cornflakes started when he first ate them for breakfast aged ten.

He later began to gorge on them up to three times a day, sometimes even for lunch and dinner. He eats them with milk and sugar.

Balkan breakfast: Mick in Croatia. He has no plans to stop his exploits and is planning more trips.

Pictured in Mali. He has made numerous trips around the world over ten years and insists on buying only local brand flakes

Colazione: The cornflake enthusiast at the picturesque Lake Garda in Italy

The keen traveller came up with the idea of combining his passion for travel and cornflakes while in Mexico, in September 2002.

He has since eaten them in dozens of countries, including Mali, Brazil, Thailand, and Switzerland.

The Eiffel Tower in Paris, Times Square in New York and the pyramids in Egypt have all featured as backdrops.

But Mick has now eaten so many of them while travelling he prefers to eat branflakes when back at his home in Fareham, Hampshire.

He has worked in a variety of temporary jobs to save money for his travels, of which over 13,000 miles have been covered on a bicycle.

He said: 'I live to travel and want to visit every country in the world.'

Crunchy in Casablanca: Mick eating breakfast in Morocco. He does much of his travelling on a bike

Mick is now so sick of cornflakes he prefers to eat branflakes when back at his home in Fareham. Seen here crunching away in Senegal

Good morning Vietnam: Mick at Halong Bay. He says the gulf in quality of cornflakes between the developed and developing world is noticeable

Roman Holiday: Mick outside a shop north of the Italian capital of Rome

He added: 'However, I wanted to make my journey unique, so I came up with the idea of eating cornflakes in each country

'I’ve eaten them for breakfast from a young age, but I later began to eat them more and more - sometimes as a quick and easy lunch and dinner.

'I thought my idea was the perfect way to combine my two passions.

'Thankfully, it has not been too difficult finding cornflakes in shops around the world as they are a basic cereal.

'The most I have had to travel to buy a packet is from a rural village to the nearest town or city.

'I do try to buy a local brand whenever I can to support the area and to try something new.

'However, the quality has varied, and I am still on the hunt for my perfect flake.'

Pictured in The Gambia (left) and in Singapore (right), the location of the single worst cornflake experience of his entire odyssey



Desayuno: Football fan Mick pictured in Spain with a local brand of 'Copos de Maiz'

In Brunei: Mick has developed diabetes and must now watch his food intake

MICK'S TOP FIVE CORNFLAKE EXPERIENCES:

1. Egypt - Crunchy flakes whilst sitting on the Giza plateau. 2. Turkey - Great flakes, tasted sweet.

3. Bosnia - At the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun in Visoko. 4. UK - With the flakes I grew up loving outside Stonehenge. 5. Germany - nice crunchy, dark tasty flakes before England v Sweden in World Cup 2006. MICK'S BOTTOM FIVE CORNFLAKE EXPERIENCES: 1. Mauritania - The camel milk was awful. 2. Bulgaria - They were really cheap and like plastic. 3. Indonesia - Cheap flakes and the milk was warm. 4. Albania - Eating them next to a motorway, I could taste smoke. 5. Singapore - The flakes tasted awful after the extortionate price I had to pay.



He added: 'My ideal would be dark, crunchy, organic, locally grown, and handmade.

'However, some have been very disappointing.

'The cheaper ones have been pumped with air, looked pale, and taste more like paper or cardboard.



'They also go limp in milk. There is quite a clear divide between quality of cornflakes in the developed and developing world.

'I had to use varying amount of sugar to try and give some of the poorer flakes some flavour.

'That also gave me some of the energy I needed to cycle throughout the day.'

'The quality of the milk and the surroundings can also influence how much I enjoy my bowlful.

Mick relaxes with a bowlful as he looks out at a beautiful lake in the Central American country of Guatemala

Pictured in Laos (left) and on a beach at the Perhentian islands in Malaysia (right)



Frühstück: Pictured in Berlin, capital of Germany. He has worked in a variety of temp jobs to save money for his travels

'It is nice to have a picturesque setting, such as the spectacular Sahara dessert, and ice cold milk.

'I’d ideally eat them from a nice clean bowl and shiny spoon, because many of my bowlfuls have been from a Tupperware dish that I carry on my bicycle.”

Mick suffers from diabetes and has recently started to take more care of his diet.

That includes cutting down on cornflakes, and replacing them with branflakes or fruit and fibre while not travelling.

He added: 'I’ve eaten so many cornflakes over the years, I have started to go off them and now eat different cereal at home.

'However, I’m still on the search for my ideal flake.'

At Pyrgos in Greece, with a local brand that comes in a bag instead of the traditional box

Holiday in Cambodia: Mick on a hotel balcony in the Far East

Awful: When he ate this cereal in Tirana in Albania, Mick says he could taste the exhaust fumes from passing vehicles