Dog Blog

What can you expect from a boat trip in this part of the world? This wasn't our first and was likely not our last. Our experience on the MV Kimbia in Guyana was still fresh in our mind, and if the 5 nights spent in the Brazilian Amazon river system on riverboat Dois Irmaos-I between Manaus and Port Velho was going to be anything like the Kimbia then we were in for 5 days of hell. The river system is the highway of the Amazon. With roads only opened seasonally, and only then to capable offroad vehicles, the river picks up the slack and does a very good job. The Amazon river itself is vast, capable of being navigated by the largest ocean-going ships. It allows trade into and out of Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazonas in the north of Brazil and nearly 1,000 miles inland, most practical. We sighted many large barges carrying semi-trailers as well as what seemed to be floating warehouses. There are many communities along the riverbanks ranging in size from an isolated house to...

Stuart sat in the back of a taxi travelling four hours across the country, having now spent a total of three months in Venezuela. His hope was that this little adventure would allow The Pack Track to continue their journey exploring more of South America. So where was he going? The city of Bolivar Ciudad, capital of the state of Bolívar. Over 2 months ago we had a brilliant idea, we'd had a lot of faulty electronics (which admittedly were old at the start of our trip and included laptop, camera, GPS and bluetooth comms) and needed a few motorcycle parts which were not easy to obtain in South America. So we decided to place an order online and have it shipped to Venezuela. The plan was sound. International shipping "guaranteed" 3-5 days delivery, we had an address we trusted with our amigo Carlos in El Callao and a plan of how to spend the time constructively while waiting for the delivery to arrive. So why were we still waiting 2 months later? Well, it all started when we first plac...

This is Negrita, or more affectionately known as Weeti... We've known Weeti for a little while now. Our paths first crossed during Skyla's treatment in El Callao when Weeti donated blood to Skyla for an emergency blood transfusion. We were very grateful to Weeti who had herself not had an easy start to life. She was a two year old rescue dog that hds been living with the local vet in El Callao (Alicia) for nearly two years. Weeti was born a street dog. It's a tough life, a constant battle to find food and learn to be 'streetwise' as so many of the drivers in Latin America don't care if they hit dogs. It's heartbreaking to watch and Weeti was a victim of this. As a young pup, Weeti was run over by a truck near the Plaza Bolivar of El Callao, pushed off the road and left to die. A passing driver, Luis Lazar (and friend of Alicia's) grabbed her off the road and took her to Alicia's veterinary shop to see what could be done to save her. Alicia could see that she had a broken hind. ...

Nothing clears the mind like physical activity and spending time with nature. What better for The Pack Track to recover from the recent loss of Skyla than a 6 day 5 night trek in the Gran Sabana, destination Mount Roraima. Mount Roraima is one of the table top mountains, most famous of all due to its relatively easy climb (no equipment required) and proximity to other frequented sites. The table top mountains have been the inspiration for books and movies due to the early belief that the isolation atop of these ancient mountains had species long gone extinct in the rest of the world. The book 'The Lost World' is the most notable of these but more recently the childrens movie 'Up', which we made sure we watched to get excited about what to expect on top! Stu investigated packages for the trek when we were in Santa Elena de Uairen. Most guides take groups of four plus people so if you are travelling alone or as a couple you will likely be grouped with other people to bump the numbers ...

On the 10th of September 2014, in the small town of El Callao, Venezuela, our hearts broke as we said goodbye to The Pack Track's most popular member. Skyla lost her long fight with cancer. Skyla fought hard to the end. 10 days earlier she was wiggling in the grass and chasing her ball as she had always done. Then over night she fell ill and required daily visits to the vet for intravenous fluids and vitamins, surgery to remove a couple of lumps and a late night blood transfusion. The vet in El Callao, Alicia, went above and beyond to help Skyla. She treated Skyla morning and night for three weeks, made late night visits to our hotel to check on her and always had time to receive our phone calls and meet us at our hotel or clinic when required. Being the only white people in the small community of El Callao, our presence was quickly noticed and people learnt that we were staying in town due to our sick dog. Alicia mentioned that people in town were asking after Skyla and her progres...

The MV Kimbia, a 70 year old dilapidated ocean going passenger and cargo transport ferry, is said to be one of the oldest ships in the maritime public transport industry. It services the communities in the Northwest region of Guyana, a region only accessible by boat due to the whole area being a marshy swamp land interspersed with river systems. The ferry ride is usually around 25 hours but inclement weather can extend this voyage to 30-36 hours. The trip is very much a third world transportation experience; grossly overcrowded, terrible sanitation, all kinds of animals and next to no consideration for safety. Guyana is a developing country on the north coast of South America. It has a population of around 750,000 and is the second smallest country by land mass in South America. By the time we reached Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, and had spent a few days exploring the city, we had seen everything we wanted. This took us about a week in total and from this point onwards, we w...

After the intensity of the World Cup we were looking forward to a slower pace. From Brazil we were free to travel wherever the road would take us. A few days in Boa Vista, Brazil, gave us some time to discuss our overall plan for South America and we decided that it would be best to travel anti-clockwise around South America, reaching the bottom (Ushuaia) around the end of November. It gets very cold down there so for riders its recommended to head there in the warmer months, December to February. We picked Guyana for our next stop, an English speaking country and that was the limit of our knowledge of the little South American country with population around 800,000. It was a pleasant ride to Letham, the border town of Guyana, and we stopped along the way to grab a few snaps, easing into our new routine (taking our time). The border crossing wasn't too complicated, there was some paperwork for both Skyla and the motorbikes. What did surprise us was the temporary permit the immigr...

This is the route report for the road from Lethem on the Guyanese side of the Guyana/Brazil border to Linden near Georgetown in Guyana (the road from Linden to Georgetown is sealed). Our travel occurred at the end of July, towards the end of the wet season and so includes some of the worse conditions you could face along this route. We were advised at the border that this route could be done in a day. we are sure this is possible for someone experienced and knowledgeable of the road, but we were neither and had plenty of time.  The total distance is around 450km of unsealed road, a combination of dirt, mud and sand, through some very beautiful jungle. The terrain was mostly flat, with a few low gradient hills as you approached Linden but accompanied with better road surface due to the logging companies in that region. In no rush, we rode a little over 100km a day. This worked out really well with camping locations. Adjacent to the road is thick jungle which makes camping 'just any...

In September 2013, back in Australia, we had noticed that Skyla's lymph nodes on her neck had significantly enlarged. It occurred at the same time a rash appeared on her belly. Skyla often gets a rash on her belly when she gets in to long grass so we treated the rash and thought the enlarged lymph nodes was due to her body fighting the rash. After a few days the rash went away and instead of the lumps decreasing they got bigger so we took her to the vet. Skyla was quickly diagnosed as having Lymphoma, a cancer of the blood, and was referred to the Sydney's Animal Referral Hospital (A.R.H.). We were given the following heartbreaking options: leave her untreated with a life expectancy of only 30 days; put her on steroids to possibly get 90 days; treat her with chemotherapy and get 12-14 months; or try the new and very expensive bone marrow transplant treatment with a 30% chance of success but a potential cure. We didn't need to discuss the options. We both agreed that we would thro...

We did the hard yards to get to Brazil and it was definitely worth it. Being in a football nation such as Brazil, following world cup games with people from all over the world and to top it off attending games in top class stadiums was an extraordinary experience that we will never forget. The day after we arrived in Manaus, Stuart's dad (Alan) flew in from Australia. He landed at around 10:30pm and travelling with him was our new Heidenau K60 Adventure Touring Tyres and 21 valuable tickets to world cup games. Tyres were very expensive and timely to receive in South America so Stuart cleverly devised a plan to order them on ebay, have them delivered to Alan's home in Australia and make sure Alan packed light so the weight of the tyres would be within his baggage limit. It was a great plan for everyone except Alan who had to lug the tyres around in transit to and from airports and flight transfers. We did really appreciate the effort and it was a big cost saving for us – thanks Alan....

Imagine if you will, a land where petrol is free, a night in a luxury hotel costs $5 while $10 gets you a room in a fully equipped resort. A good meal is under a dollar and a first class road network connects cities with practically no traffic. Wouldn't this be an adventure riders heaven. Would you believe us if we told you that such a place does exist? Well it does and it really is a riders paradise. As well as costing peanuts to live, it has some of the most amazing scenery and ecological sights in the world; prehistoric plateaus, beautiful waterfalls (the tallest in the world, Angel Falls, amongst them), the Amazon, the foot hills to the Andes mountain range and picturesque beaches. Where is this place? The beautiful Venezuela. The first thing we needed to know about Venezuela was that there is a parallel currency exchange market (i.e. black market). It was actually illegal in Venezuela and they were cracking down, however, the price of everything in the country was set on this ...

The Darien Gap! A 50km stretch of jungle separating Panama in North America from Colombia in South America. The jungle is so thick that it isolated the Mayan civilisation from the Inca's. Although a few well equipped adventurers have had success in navigating through the harsh environment, most attempts have failed. Plans to join Panama to Colombia by road through the Darien Gap have never eventuated, mainly because of the terrain but also because of the poor relations between the two countries. How then would The Pack Track get from North to South America? There are essentially two options, fly or sail, each with its pros and cons. Flying can be done in a day whereas sailing takes 5 days. The price is very similar with flying only fractionally more expensive than sailing but our main concern was Skyla's comfort and well-being as we didn't want to put her in a crate again if we could avoid it. The sailing options include the traditional single hull or catamaran sail boats. However,...