Mick Hobday

The Corn Flake Traveller

Mick Hobday









I started travelling in September 2002 and 13 years later I have eaten flakes in 77 countries. After 10 years on the road I've written a book (which led to some publicity in national newspapers and magazines), I blog for a diabetes charity and I've started making films about my various trips


If you need convincing to read on, over the years I’ve slept in a Mosque, in a barn, up mountains, in the desert and outside Venice with 200 dogs. I’ve visited ancient sites such as the Angkor complex, Gobekli tepe, Machu Pichu, a lost city in the Colombian jungle and I’ve excavated pyramids in Bosnia. I’ve hang-glided over Rio, Hot-air ballooned over the Valley of the Kings, white water rafted in Ecuador and para-glided in Argentina. I’ve come across a huge variety of animals like hippos, baboons, condors, llamas, desert foxes, bears, Komodo dragons, an anteater and loads of different monkeys. I’ve been diving with sharks, manta rays, turtles, seahorses, dolphins and I’ve ridden a camel and an elephant.


I’ve encountered lots of people, the vast majority good and just a few bad (usually immigration and border control). I have received random acts of kindness from shopkeepers, people on buses, an evangelical Christian and a guy in Mauritania even lent me his house.

I’ve seen huge salt flats, the Sahara, the jungle, walked on glaciers, taken boats down the Amazon, the Nile and the Mekong and I’ve also cycled over 13500 miles, through 22 European countries, including cycling across the Alps. I’ve modelled in a fashion show, been interviewed on Peruvian radio (in Spanish), I’ve searched for UFOs in the desert, flown over the Nazca Lines, been to a music festival in the Sahara and I was almost kidnapped by Al-Qaeda.
.
All these experiences happened during my first decade which ended in Sept 2012. I spent the rest of the year writing and then in February 2013 I self-published my first book, which was followed by some media attention, me writing some short stories for magazines and a book, I formed the Modern Explorers with some friends I met travelling and I started learning how to make films. I have been written about in various newspapers, countless websites, interviewed on radio stations in Ireland, Holland, Dubai and England and I even appeared on TV in Australia. All this happened in an effort to publicize my book which features diary extracts describing my favourite experiences on the road as I try to eat a bowl of Corn Flakes in every country in the world.





Click for My Website and Social Media Links

Click to Read my Full Biography

Click to See all the Countries I have Corn Flakeified





Africa » Swaziland February 5th 2015

I visited Swaziland at the end of a 3 month tour of Southern Africa, during which I went on a number of different road trips to keep my trip cheap and to be able to see as much as possible. By the time we arrived in Swaziland we (I was travelling with my mate Rich) had already driven about 30,000km around South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana and Namibia, sleeping in the car or camping every night. Our first stop was to a cultural village showing how the people used to live in the 1850’s, in wooden huts with fenced off areas for cows and goats. We also got to see a couple of traditional Swazi dances, although being a show for tourists it was a bit of a shock after our more authentic experiences in Namibia, but ... read more
The Cultural Village
The Cultural Village
The Cultural Village

Africa » Namibia January 18th 2015

Click to watch my film if you would prefer to watch than read I wasn’t expecting much when I crossed the border into Namibia my impressions of the place were built around the Namib Desert, the only thing I knew about the country so I imagined it being desolate and dry. We (me and my mate Rich) entered from Botswana at the end of 2014 during a 3 month tour of Southern Africa. After driving through the thin strip of land known as the Caprivi Strip we chose to spend a night in Rundu so we could go to a New Years Eve party on a beach of the River Cubango. It was a great night and a great experience dancing with the locals while looking across the river (and therefore border) into Angola. We ... read more
The River Bank Party
The River Bank Party
The River Bank Party

Africa » Botswana December 31st 2014

Take a look at the Film I made for more details about this trip Country 74 - 9 Days in Botswana At the end of 2014 I flew to South Africa with my mate Rich to begin a 3 month tour, then just before Christmas we hired a car in Johannesburg and drove across the border into Botswana. We spent a couple of days driving about 900km through the Kalahari Desert to reach the beautiful Okavango Delta, one of the few inland deltas where the water doesn’t reach the ocean but instead evaporates and is absorbed by flora, fauna and the salt pans. As we drove through Botswana we were instantly struck by the number of animals walking at the side of, and on the road, it’s because there are no fences to allow the ... read more
Welcome to Botswana
Driving Through the Kalahari Desert
Donkeys on the Road

Africa » Lesotho November 14th 2014

I’d never even heard of the Kingdom of Lesotho before I travelled to the Southern end of Africa, even though it was a British colony until 1966, but after spending 3 days in the company of the Basotho (a Bantu-speaking people) I would like to return one day to really get to know the country. When looking on a map you’d be forgiven for thinking Lesotho was a province of South Africa but it’s a micro-state which is very proud to be independent after a hard struggle to prevent absorption by the country that surrounds them. Out of all the micro-states I have visited it was the one that felt most like a country to me, there was a proper border and after crossing you notice a significant drop in the standard of living compared to ... read more
Crossing the Bprder at Ficksburg
Armed and Ready
The Traditional Hat

Europe » Andorra August 19th 2014

3 or 4 hours in Andorra The Principality of Andorra is officially a sovereign landlocked micro-state nestled in the Pyrenees, it is a tiny country with an area of 468 km2and an estimated population of 85,000. Formed in A.D. 1278 it is known as a principality as it’s a monarchy headed by two Co-Princes – the Spanish/Roman Catholic Bishop of Urgell and the President of France. I visited in August 2014 as part of a Modern Explorers trip to video Megaliths in the Pyrennes (see video below) but only passed through briefly. In that amount of time you can’t absorb much culture but to be honest being wedged between France and Spain it doesn’t really have much of a unique way of life anyway. Andorra consists predominantly of mountains. The highest being the Coma Pedrosa ... read more
Andorra' Beautiful Scenery
Andorra' Beautiful Scenery
Andorra' Beautiful Scenery

Europe » Spain » Catalonia » Calella July 15th 2014

I had been to Catalunya a few times before, staying with my girlfriend at the time in Barcelona but I didn’t really appreciate that it was more than just a province of Spain. Having spent more time living and working there my opinion has changed somewhat and I now think Catalunyans are fully justified in wanting independence. It has its own language, flag, the standard of living was considerably higher than the majority of Spain and more than anything there seems to be a big call for it from the people. I lived in Calella de Palafrugell, a beautiful little beach town on the Costa Brava, from where I was based to look after 5 different walking and cycling holidays for Headwater. It was the same job I did last summer in France, basically moving ... read more
Arriving in Catalunya
Arriving in Catalunya
Our Apartment

Middle East » Cyprus March 17th 2014

I wasn’t all that interested in visiting Cyprus, I was basically just ticking another country off the list for my Corn Flake mission but I spent nearly 2 weeks camping and sleeping in the car and found enough to keep me entertained. It was the end of a 2 month trip which started with a month in Jordan, followed by a couple of weeks touring around Israel and Palestine and when I flew out of Tel Aviv I left feeling like a caged animal after my time in what is effectively a police state. I landed in Cyprus needing to feel free so I picked up my bag, walked straight out the airport and kept on walking until I reached the coast. Next day I did some hitching-hiking and plenty of walking so progress was ... read more
...The Greek Flag
The First Sign I Saw
Cypriot Kindness

Middle East » Israel » West Bank March 17th 2014

My 68th Country - 4 Days in Palestine My film “Corn Flakes in Palestine” Whilst driving around Israel I passed through the West Bank on a couple of occasions but didn’t stay for more than a couple of hours. For this reason I hired a car and drove around the West Bank for 4 days, sleeping in the car to keep things cheap and to enable me to see as much as possible in a limited time (i.e. we didn’t waste time looking for hotels). One of the brief visits was to Bethlehem where we went to the Church of Nativity to see where Jesus was allegedly born, although how the accuracy of the location has been kept over the years I failed to comprehend. Not being a religious man the location didn’t mean much to ... read more
The Car We Hired
Quite a famous town
The Church of Nativity

Middle East » Jordan March 17th 2014

My 66th Country - Jordan For those lazy readers I also made a video - 'Corn Flakes in Jordan' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nYZvlBjwvk I went to Jordan at this time as I didn't really have much money and I was limited due to travelling in the winter months. I flew into Amman and spent a week acclimatizing to the country, exploring the city and I also went on a couple of day long road trips to visit a dolmen field and the north east close to the Golan Heights area. I stayed in a hostel downtown and enjoyed mixing with salt of the earth people and trying all the foods on offer such as lambs brain and falafel. The city was interestingly built on 7 hills which allows you to get great views of the heavily built up area ... read more
Exploring Amman
Exploring Amman
Exploring Amman

Europe December 21st 2013

Writing for the United Networker Magazine Over the last 9 months I have written a series of magazine articles about some of my trips to different countries and it all started thanks to Travelblog.org's forum. My first article was in March 2013 about my cycle trip around Spain, to see the magazine you will have to pay but you can read the articles on my Wattpad account for free or just have a look at the photos in this blog of some screen captures from the PDFs they send me. http://www.wattpad.com/17611632-cycling-around-spain April - Egypt http://www.wattpad.com/18048100-backpacking-around-egypt May - Indonesia url=http://www.wattpad.c... read more
Spain Pages 3 + 4
Spain Pages 5 + 6
Egypt Pages 1 + 2




Tot: 0.757s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 21; qc: 106; dbt: 0.2309s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.3mb