PEDALLING all the way to northern Spain come rain or shine on a pushbike and completely on your own is not at the top of everyone's to do list - but then not everyone is quite as extraordinary as Eastleigh woman Amber Martin.

Amber, 32, from Fair Oak, woke up one morning and decided she would make the 1,200 kilometres lone journey in order to do research for a fictional book she has begun writing.

She is already thousands of words into the story, but Amber - who has just gained a first in her fashion degree from prestigious London fashion college Central St Martin's - is still scraping the pennies together to fund her ambitious pilgrimage.

She said: "I have always liked to challenge myself and after my degree I just woke up and thought this is what I want to do next.

The book is about a female character that decides to make a pilgrimage to the Salvador Dali Museum in northern Spain by bicycle.

To ensure my book is authentic I am going to cycle from my house in Fair Oak to Figueras later this year.

I'm a bit nervous but I'm the sort of person that thinks about what I should be worried about when it happens."

It's an ambitious task, and not something most young women would ever even have dreamed up.

With an estimated journey time of about two months - Amber faces weeks of travelling alone through France and Spain staying at youth hostels or even her own tent with nothing but her rucksack for company.

But with her determined nature, Amber, of Brook Road, is unfazed.

Only two years ago, the Daily Echo reported how she successfully bagged work experience with top fashion icon John Galliano at his studio in Paris before embarking on her degree.

Now she is also looking for a publisher for her book which she hopes to enter for the Mann Booker Prize 2005.

Amber says she realises fashion is not for her.

"I'm glad I've done it. I'm more interested in writing or becoming a freelance artist. I want to make sure I don't spend the next 30 years sitting at the same desk."

Amber is also raising money The Mind charity shop and is looking for sponsorship. Call her on 07817 945290.