This woman is riding around the world with her dog.

(CNN) — It’s not every day you see a motorcycle riding down the road with a German Shepherd dog on the back of their bike.

So it’s no surprise that watching content creator Jess Stone and her beloved dog, Mokshe, walk around together often has viewers doing a double take.

“Every car that rides next to us, they [the people inside] They’re going to pull out their phones and cause an accident because they’re trying to get the shot,” she told CNN Travel. “It’s ridiculous.”

Weighing in at around 34kg, Stone and Moxie are currently on an epic 10-month cycling journey through 90 countries across Central America, North and South America, Africa, Europe and Asia.

The couple have been on the road since last March, with Stone’s husband Greg riding behind them.

“I’m always up front,” Stone explains. “I want to overcome obstacles first.”

Driving test

Originally from Canada, Stone first learned to ride a motorcycle a decade ago on the side streets of Liberia where she and Greg lived, which she admits was far from an easy process.

“It’s not the best thing to have your spouse teach you how to drive,” she adds. “He didn’t have much patience with me.”

When she finally felt comfortable riding a motorcycle, the couple, who had been married for eight years, took an eight-month motorcycle trip together from North to South America. A few years after their return, they went to Guatemala and Moxie entered their lives.

“She chose me 100%,” she says, recalling the moment she first laid eyes on the dog while looking at German shepherd puppies in one of the neighboring towns.

“She was on her heels waiting for me to love her.”

While both Stone and her husband decided to include Moxy in their trip, she explained that she “didn’t want to have a sidecar or a trailer or anything that would change the dynamics of the ride.” Comfortable on a motorcycle.

They quickly began designing the K9 Moto Cockpit, a motorcycle dog carrier they make in Guatemala, with external dog gear through their company, Raffley.

“Everyone asks how long it takes to teach your dog how to ride,” says Stone. “Actually, it took a weekend of moxie.”

“It took me a long time to get comfortable with that much weight on the back, because I’ve never ridden with a passenger.”

“Of course I wanted to travel the world,” said Stone, who aims to raise $100,000 for Girl Up’s global empowerment projects. But I wanted to show people that you can do it with a big dog.

Being able to take Moxie on this special trip made it that much more special for Stone.

A constant companion

“It’s like you’ve had the adventure twice,” she explains. “You experience it for yourself. Then you experience it from her perspective, because she’s behind me.

“I saw her. [Moxie] Always in my mirror. Her head is right beside me. Sometimes she puts her big nose on my shoulder and her chin up.

“It makes me so happy that she’s experiencing everything. She’s always seeing and experiencing new sights, sounds and smells.”

Of course, traveling with a dog has its disadvantages. They are mostly limited to dog-friendly places and rely on wild camping and the occasional Airbnb, allowing Mokshe to move freely while on the road.

“You have to be someone who enjoys nature and the outdoors,” Stone adds.

“Because there are places we can bring her to, if she’s going to be in the city and go to all these great restaurants, it makes traveling with a dog a little more challenging.”

Initially planning to drive from Guatemala to the Arctic Ocean and into Canada before flying to Spain and heading to Africa, costs have risen sharply due to a number of factors, including rising fuel prices and supply shortages. to change their ways.

Stone points out that Mokshe must be shipped in an oversized box as unaccompanied cargo because of her size.

This meant that if they stuck with their original plan, the total cost for her alone, including pet fees, shipping, and international pet shipper fees, was around $6,500.

By the time they embarked on the journey, the cost of shipping their motorcycles had skyrocketed.

Ultimately, they chose to travel “end to end and top to bottom” from Guatemala to Mexico, the United States, Canada and the Arctic Ocean.

From there, they turned around and drove to the top of North America before heading south.

Challenging way

Before her road trip, Stone booked some off-road training sessions to make sure she had the skills to navigate some of the more difficult sections of the trail.

“Of course I went off the road many times, but I never felt uncomfortable,” she said. “And I wanted to feel really good about it because my moxie is on the back.”

She admits she’s nervous about driving the remote Dempster Highway, a long gravel road in Canada all the way to the Arctic Ocean.

“I was worried I was going to fall off my bike and get hurt,” she said. “It’s funny, I never think about hurting myself. My biggest concern is my bike.”

Thankfully, they made it through without incident, but Stone says she often feels sick during the trip, thinking something might go wrong.

“My biggest fear is not being able to continue the ride and something happening to the bike that’s out on the road,” she says. “Fortunately, nothing like that happened.”

While Stone says her driving skills are constantly improving, that doesn’t stop her from doubting herself from time to time.

“Am I still worried about dirt roads going up? Yeah, am I worried I’m going to go down and break my bike? Yeah.

“But I can’t stress enough how important it is to practice those skills. It really makes a difference. It makes the experience more positive.”

Although things have gone relatively smoothly so far, Stone occasionally loses her balance while riding, causing her and Mokshe to “spoil”.

It’s no doubt a great comfort to have her husband, who she describes as a “gear mule,” behind her.

“I carry the shepherd, he carries the camping equipment,” she added, before explaining that they necessarily ride together almost constantly and sometimes take separate routes.

“Sometimes he wants to try a different way or I want to go a different way and then we meet each other. But I’m able to be myself.”

Their biggest hurdle so far was having to replace her bike in May. After experiencing various “oil leak issues,” Stone realized that her 2013 BMW G650GS needed an expensive engine rebuild.

She bought a new second-hand model bike for the same price as the rebuild.

“That was an unexpected expense,” she says. “But that [new] The bike will take me the rest of the way.”

The main attraction

Among the many highlights for her so far are stopping at Girl Up Clubs and sharing stories, camping in the Arctic Ocean, marveling at moose crossing the road, and even seeing a grizzly bear.

“Moxie squeals with excitement when she sees these creatures on the side of the road,” she added. “She was really excited. We did some fishing along the way, which was really awesome.”

Currently in Los Angeles, Stone is preparing for the next leg of his journey, which will include taking a boat to Baja, Mexico and then down to Guatemala and on to Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama.

They plan to fly from Panama to Colombia, where they will ride to the “tip” of Argentina and then fly to South Africa.

Once in South Africa, they travel along the east coast of Africa to Egypt and then Greece, before “circling Europe” and traveling through Turkey and Central Asia.

The next leg will see them ride from India to Malaysia, load up their bikes, and Moxie, back to North America and then to their first and final destination, Guatemala, which Stone describes as her “adopted home.”

Stone estimates they’ll be on the road for at least another two and a half years. But for now, she’s focusing on the next phase of her journey and honing her driving skills.

Her four-legged friend continues to be a source of inspiration, and Stone never gets tired of others responding to Moxie, joking that every gas station visit is like a “selfie palooza.”

“People get out of their cars,” she added. “And the first thing everyone says is, ‘Oh my God, she’s wearing glasses.’

“She brings a smile to everybody’s face. And that’s what I love about her. She makes everybody have a good day.”