SOUTHAMPTON based adventurer Dee Caffari has pushed herself to the limit with a 6,000km challenge - and she admitted it was tougher than sailing round the world.

Dee led a team of four in the Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge and helped raise half a million Australian dollars for cancer charities.

"Relatively speaking sailing round the world seemed so much easier - the ocean is much more my comfort zone.

"We covered 6,000km in six days using the three disciplines of kayaking, mountain biking and trekking or running.

"The first day was a real baptism of fire - we covered 56km on our bikes and climbed 1,200m.

"The incline was just endless and I couldn't imagine being able to make it to the end of the week," she said.

Each night the teams slept under canvas and packed up each morning in readiness for the day's new challenge.

"We all made it through. At the start of the week the teams were madly competitive but after a few days we were all helping each other," she said.

Dee, guaranteed herself a place in the record books in May when she became the first woman to circumnavigate the world the wrong way against prevailing winds and currents, solo, non-stop.

She is now looking forward to her first Christmas in the UK for seven years and she will spend it with her mum in Hertfordshire.

"Last year I spent Christmas on my own on the Southern ocean eating freeze-dried food and only myself for company.

"I'm even getting quite excited about Christmas shopping this year," she said.

Plans for a new sailing challenge are being put together at the moment and an announcement will be made soon.