A teacher is celebrating after winning a £4,000 prize to spend almost 100 days travelling by bus through 17 countries and three continents.

Olivia Blockey, 25, of Knoll Road, Dorking, won the once-in-a-lifetime prize after entering a competition in Wanderlust travel magazine.

The 92-day bus trip will cut right across Europe and Asia before ending in Australia.

She said: "I was a bit bored one day and was flicking through the magazine when I saw the competition and I knew the answer so I went for it.

"I never usually go in for these competitions because I never win but a couple of months later I got a phone call from my parents saying I had won.

The former Ashcombe School pupil will travel with the company Oz-Bus through France, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia before reaching Australia.

The keen traveller, who teaches English as a foreign language at a school in London, added: "I'm looking forward to going to Iran and Pakistan."

Miss Blockey said on returning from this trip she would like to travel to or get a job in New Zealand and Japan.