{"id":12748,"date":"2023-11-14T15:59:03","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T15:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacksonvillecelticfestival.com\/?p=12748"},"modified":"2023-11-14T15:59:03","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T15:59:03","slug":"pensioner-completes-annual-600-mile-ride-from-england-to-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jacksonvillecelticfestival.com\/travel\/pensioner-completes-annual-600-mile-ride-from-england-to-scotland\/","title":{"rendered":"Pensioner completes annual 600-mile ride from England to Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Pensioner, 82, completes 600-mile ride from England to Scotland on her pony Diamond &#8211; a 7-week trip she&#8217;s made every year since 1972<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Jane Dotchin makes the long trek from Northumberland to Inverness every year<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>She carries everything she needs including her tent, food, and Jack Russel Dinky<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>READ MORE:\u00a0The 800-year-old tree some say is the most beautiful in the world<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>An 82-year-old woman has completed an annual seven-week trek from England to the Scottish Highlands with her pack pony and pet dog.<\/p>\n<p>Jane Dotchin has been making the epic 600-mile journey every year since 1972, catching up with friends she has made along the way.<\/p>\n<p>Heading north, the horse lover travels between 15 and 20 miles a day until she reaches Inverness in the Scottish Highlands.<\/p>\n<p>This year, she set off again with her steed Diamond from the off-grid smallholding where she lives near Hexham, Northumberland.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I love camping and I love the countryside,&#8217; she said.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/13\/15\/77660041-12735287-image-a-63_1699888666260.jpg\" height=\"431\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Jane Dotchin (above) has completed an annual seven-week trek from England to the Scottish Highlands with her pack pony and pet dog<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/13\/15\/77660039-12735287-few-a-64_1699888666261.jpg\" height=\"492\" width=\"306\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/13\/15\/77660035-12735287-fwe-a-65_1699888666261.jpg\" height=\"492\" width=\"306\"><\/p>\n<p>Jane travels between 15 and 20 miles a day until she reaches Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. She carries everything she needs including her tent, food, a few belongings, and her Jack Russel, Dinky, tucked into the saddlebag<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The more I\u2019ve done it, the more nice people I\u2019ve got to know en route who I want to go back and see again.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Jane carries everything she needs including her tent, food, a few belongings, and her Jack Russel Dinky tucked into the saddlebag.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;She loves sitting in the saddlebag,&#8217; Jane said. &#8216;She\u2019s quite happy sitting in there, watching the world go by.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>And despite wearing an eyepatch, Jane is determined to continue the annual tradition for as long as she can.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I know the route so well, I don\u2019t need to read maps. I can manage if I keep to the routes I know,&#8217; she added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;If ever I were in trouble, I know somebody would be there, not far away, to help.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Jane first got a taste for long-distance trekking when she trotted off to the idyllic West Country around 40 years ago, in 1972.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking previously, she said: &#8216;My mother would look after my other ponies but she wasn&#8217;t that keen on looking after my Halfinger stallion, so I rode him down to Somerset to see a friend, which is about 300 miles.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/13\/15\/77660053-12735287-image-a-66_1699888666262.jpg\" height=\"421\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Jane says the more times she has made the trip, the more people she has got to know en route<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/13\/15\/77660049-12735287-image-a-67_1699888666262.jpg\" height=\"425\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Jane explains that Dinky is &#8216;quite happy&#8217; sitting in the saddlebag, &#8216;watching the world go by&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It was a bit of a hard slog, but it was good.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Jane made the trip every year, riding south where the bridleways were much better.<\/p>\n<p>But as the area developed, she noticed the route becoming more congested and decided to head north instead.<\/p>\n<p>She has made the journey north every autumn since, for the past three decades, visiting friends along the way &#8211; including some near Fort Augustus, at the edge of Loch Ness.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It&#8217;s is nice to go and see them again &#8211; I ring them up in the morning to say I&#8217;m going to be there in the evening,&#8217; Jane said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I don&#8217;t warn them too far in advance, because if the weather suddenly changes or I decide to stop early then they can be left wondering where I&#8217;ve got to.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The journey takes around seven weeks, depending on the weather.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I refuse to go slogging on through pouring wet rain,&#8217; Jane added.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/13\/15\/77660047-12735287-image-a-68_1699888666263.jpg\" height=\"435\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Despite wearing an eyepatch, Jane is determined to continue the annual tradition for as long as she can\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/13\/15\/77660043-12735287-image-a-69_1699888666263.jpg\" height=\"425\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Jane is devastated by the littering she has seen over the years, which she finds &#8216;shameful&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I don&#8217;t want to go over hilltops in foul weather, but I work it out on the way. I don&#8217;t bother with maps, I just keep to the routes I know.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Jane\u00a0lives on porridge, oatcakes and cheese, and carries an old mobile phone that has a battery that lasts six weeks &#8211; although getting a signal can be a problem.<\/p>\n<p>While Jack Russell Dinky has a diet of porridge oats, oatcakes and cheese, which is bought at local shops.<\/p>\n<p>Jane is devastated by the littering she has seen over the years, which she finds &#8216;shameful&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>She once said: &#8216;It&#8217;s appalling, in particular single-use barbecues, which are left lying all over the place.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Jane previously received The British Horse Society lifetime achievement award, which she said was &#8216;a bit of a surprise&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;There is always something interesting happening and there is never a dull moment,&#8217; she added.<\/p>\n<p>The British Horse Society Scotland wrote in a Facebook post: &#8216;Well done Jane, Dinky the dog and Diamond &#8211; 2023 was a wet one but even well into your 80s you never let the rain deter you. You are an inspiration to riders everywhere.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/travel\/article-12735287\/Pensioner-82-completes-600-mile-ride-England-Scotland-horse-Diamond-7-week-trip-shes-year-1972.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pensioner, 82, completes 600-mile ride from England to Scotland on her pony Diamond &#8211; a 7-week trip she&#8217;s made every year since 1972 Jane Dotchin makes the long trek from Northumberland to Inverness every year [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pensioner completes annual 600-mile ride from England to Scotland - jacksonvillecelticfestival.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jacksonvillecelticfestival.com\/travel\/pensioner-completes-annual-600-mile-ride-from-england-to-scotland\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pensioner completes annual 600-mile ride from England to Scotland - jacksonvillecelticfestival.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pensioner, 82, completes 600-mile ride from England to Scotland on her pony Diamond &#8211; 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