A returning champ has described how a desert rally became an experience that was out of this world.

Tamsin Jones, a 34-year-old motorbike rider from Oxford, is back at work at the Trax youth motor project in Osney Mead after becoming female winner of the Enduro Desert Rally Championship.

She and her team took part in a gruelling 14-day race through the Tunisian desert last month in the final leg of the German competition.

Thanks to a German map, and organisers squeezing hour-long German briefings into five minutes of English, she and her team got badly lost and found themselves in an 'alien' village.

She said: "It was fantastic - a real adventure. We got lost in the desert for a couple of nights and that was really bizarre.

"We came across this funny little village and it turned out to be the Star Wars set, so we were running around this little domed village.

"There was also a rainstorm in the middle of the night while we were out in the desert, which was strange."

After three days lost in the desert, Miss Jones and her team were found by the race marshals and were put back on the right track.

She said: "We lost eight hours in the first three days so every day after that we were catching up at least an hour.

"It was very, very hard work because we were camping every night and had to put up the tents in the evening and take them down again in the morning. It was tough - the toughest race I have done yet."

Miss Jones's ultimate aim is to take part in the hardest race of all, the Dakar Rally, in two years time.

During this year's race one person died and 80 of the 120 starters had to pull out due to injury or bike failure.

In the meantime, she and a team of friends plan to take part in the FIM World Rally, with races in Dubai, Morocco, Tunisia and Brazil, and start organising sponsorship for the Dakar.

Anyone interested in sponsoring Miss Jones and her team should contact her on tamzjones@yahoo.co.uk