The Pack Track

Welcome

Hello and welcome to our website! We are from Sydney, Australia, and after years of planning and saving, in February 2014 we packed up and sold up to travel around the world on motorbikes with our dogs. We bought two BMW 650 GS’s in Texas, kitted up then headed south for the adventure of a life time. We've been going for 7 years now and have travelled all across North and South America, circumnavigated the African continent and explored parts of Europe. Coming up next we'll be crossing Asia and completing our adventure with a tour of all 7 states and territories of Australia. Well, thats the plan anyway!

We are tracking our story with regular blogs and videos as well as almost daily posts to Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. So please have a look around our site, leave comments, contact us with any questions and we hope you enjoy.

Meet the team

🇦🇺 Stu 🇦🇺

Stu started life in London with his parents, two older sisters and younger brother but moved to Australia when he was five years old. He had a fairly normal childhood but he was never going to a normal adult. He left school at 16 and started a promising career in IT. But his thirst for travel grew so he joined the Royal Australian Navy. The deployments he undertook were a taste of what was out there and only fanned the flames of adventure. Stu made this round the world journey possible, his systematic approach to research, planning and implementation turns any challenge or obstacle into manageable tasks. Stu is extraordinary and unprejudiced.

🇦🇺 Janell 🇦🇺

older sister. School and work was in Sydney with their dog, cat and birds. But come weekend or school holidays, everyone, including the dog, cat and birds, piled into the family car and drove to the farm in Jerry’s Plains where 4 horses eagerly awaited their arrival or up the coast to Yamba, the family beachside holiday house. Janells career took her into project management roles after studying civil engineering. She believes travel is the best way to learn how people around the world living in different cultures, climates and landscapes find solutions to civil problems. Janell is passionate and grounded.

🇦🇺 Skyla 🇦🇺

The original and the best. Skyla was our first love, we adopted her in Canberra, Australia. She was a Staffy Cross, about 6 months old, and we had 7 crazy, beautiful years with her. She was a very anxious dog which we did our best to manage, the Pillion Pooch was designed to keep her comfortable and safe in the big wide world and she loved to ride. Skyla passed away after a noble fight with cancer. Skyla was brave and beautiful.

🇨🇴 Shadow 🇨🇴

She may be small but she’s ready to take on the World and she has a heart of Gold. Whatever her early years, she was destined to join our pack. She ran on to the road in rural Colombia as Stu was riding and was run over by the following car. She lost an eye but gained a pack that day. In no time at all she was on a plane to Florida, touring the USA, then aboard the QM2 sailing to England. She will always be 9 countries behind Weeti. Shadow is courageous and kind.

🇻🇪 Weeti 🇻🇪

Weeti is our quirky Venezuelan street dog from El Callao. She had a tough start to life being hit by a truck and further bullied by bad people. Her rescuers, Luis and Alicia, however were wonderful and never gave up on her recovery, they are the reason she walks today. Weeti was about 2 years old when she joined our pack, a month after Skyla passed. It wasn’t planned, it just happened and she rose to the challenge. Weeti is loyal and strong.

Time spent travelling

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Latest Dog Blogs

Facing Court in Zimbabwe

Facing Court in Zimbabwe

by Stu and Janell Clarke

We had honestly intended to spend more time in Botswana but looking at the map we noticed that we'd be crossing National Parks if we crossed too late. We thought it would be unlikely we'd be allowed to cross with dogs. We also felt that we weren't going to anything particularly new staying in Botswana and so we after only one night we decided to forfeit our 30 day vehicle tax and head for the border. We knew that there would be difficulties getting fuel in Zimbabwe so we filled all of our tanks, including the Touratech long range tanks which would mean that we'd easily make it to Zambia before needing fuel again. Exiting Botswana went smoothly, cleared immigration and exited the bikes without issue. There was about 2km of road between the two border posts, not completely uncommon and not the furthest we'd travelled between landports but is always indicative of the cooperation between the countries. Naively, we'd thought that because the Zimbabwe economy was failing and that they had...

Pet Movement through Southern Africa

Pet Movement through Southern Africa

by Stu and Janell Clarke

We'd had issues entering South Africa from Namibia due to the dogs, but it was easy enough to overcome. What was needed was an animal import permit. Once issued this document could be used to import an animal into any of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) countries and was valid for 30 days. Getting the animal import permit in Namibia had been straight forward. We visited the state vet near the South African border and they checked our paperwork and produced the permit on the spot. But our stay in South Africa had extended beyond the 30 days, which meant we'd need a new permit to continue travelling through the customs union. Obtaining the permit in South Africa proved to be a little more bureaucratic than Namibia. We visited a local vet who explained that they would normally conduct a preliminary examination and then send off the documents to Johannesburg for the permit with a turnaround time of up to 3 weeks. The local vet suggested that if we had time we could walk the doc...

Vineyards & Wildlife, South Africa

Vineyards & Wildlife, South Africa

by Stu and Janell Clarke

We spent two fantastic months in South Africa. But it almost didn't happen, sorting out paperwork problems for the dogs took us three attempts to cross from Namibia into South Africa. Tensions were high for two very important reasons. Firstly, we'd sent Janell's motorbike ahead to Pretoria after its breakdown in northern Namibia. And secondly, Janell's mother (Pauline) was flying into Cape Town on 11 June to spend 5 weeks travelling with us. So we needed to cross into South Africa one way or another. The most direct route to Janell's motorbike in Pretoria was via the Ariamsvlei Border Crossing. We arrived at the border and started processing our checkout of Namibia and then into South Africa. We were almost through when the customs official asked us for the Animal Movement Permits for the girls. We didn't know what they were and simply showed the EU PETS Passports. The official explained that we should have obtained the permit in Namibia before attempting to cross the border, we beg...

Namibia

Namibia

by Stu and Janell Clarke

The Republic of Namibia reminded us of central Australia. There is so much untouched country, desert left to the animals that can survive there. It was the first time in Africa we really felt remote, away from people and infrastructure. Namibia is a large country but with only a small population of 3 million yet it's in a better economic situation than its northern neighbour Angola. I think what we enjoyed so much was the 'western' luxuries in towns and cities but then being able to leave those behind to be in the wild. The best of both worlds. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Namibia, even with the breakdowns we experienced. Welcome to Namibia Elephant Poo We did a lot of camping in Namibia and we seemed to have the campsites to ourselves. Using iOverlander for recommendations/reviews we chose campsites set up near known waterholes where wild animals would frequent at certain times of the year. We were again on the lookout for elephants. There were plenty of road signs ind...