Hundreds of GS riders participated in the fifth BMW GS Challenge held in the Limpopo province recently.

Can you picture it?

Not one or two, not ten.

Not even a hundred GS bikes.

No, try imagine if you can, what 400 such bikes gathered in a single location looks like. And sounds like. The bark of boxer twins from the 1200s. The whine of the 650 singles. And the rasp of the 800s.

The campsite

This was the scene which greeted the former gold rush town of Leydsdorp when the fifth BMW GS Challenge descended on the town and transformed it into a hive of all things ‘GelandeStrasse’.

Camp 'GelandeStrasse'

Created in 2004 and held at Jan ‘Staal’ du Toit’s farm (which incidentally is also the Country Trax BMW offroad rider academy venue) in Amersfoort, the BMW GS Challenge (formerly known as the Great African GS Challenge) has proven to be an immensely popular formula.

It has seen growth in every year of its occurrence until last year, when organisers decided to limit the number of entries for environmental and logistical reasons.

Hungry riders queueing up for dinner

After being inaugurated and organised by Deon Meyer every year, this year’s event was organised by a new team, this one being headed up by BMW Motorrad events manager Cora Forssman and marketing manager Rob Barnes.

I’ve been to the last three GS Challenges and I can tell you that this year’s event was run with the same professionalism and logistical efficiency that has characterised the other Challenges.

The sign says it all...

In case you’re totally new to the GS Challenge, let me give you a quick run-down of what it entails: a collection (read ‘hundreds’) of BMW GS riders come from all over the country to camp in a central location over four nights.

Participants then depart with their mates on a designated route each day, take in amazing scenery, stop for lunch in quaint locations and get to ride their GS bike in the testing African offroad environment for which it was designed.

Riding through burnt forest

Said okes (and chicks) then get back to camp where they laze around, make liberal use of the bar and couch facilities and generally take advantage of the hospitality laid on by BMW.

Then they get up and repeat it all the next day. And the next. In fact it basically just boils down to being an amazing opportunity to get away from the office and camp and ride dirt with your mates every year.

And green forest

Like last year, riders were given option of three levels of difficulty, green, orange and red. Cunningly, event organisers bump up the skill level slightly over the days so that the route you’re riding on day 3 is somewhat more technical than the route you rode on day 1, but by then you’ve acclimatised to the offroad conditions, and probably won’t even notice. You’re a better rider for it though…

Leydsdorp is stationed roughly halfway between Tzaneen and the Kruger National Park, so riders either set out west into the forest plantations or east towards the dry, somewhat barren landscape of the park surrounds.

And dry scrub

Conditions ranged from gentle dirt roads through lush forests, with birds twittering and shady cool conditions, to hot, dry and sandy riding with participants having to negotiate steep rocky ascents and descents, thick sand-filled river beds as well as the usual washaways, water hazards and even angry buffalo!

Eddie powers his way through the sand

Through the tenaciousness of the event organisers and the graciousness of the local farmers, we often entered state forests and private farmland which is normally off-limits to the general public.

An example of the scenery dished up at this year's event

Some of the places I rode didn’t even qualify as a road – more like a single track through the bush, and I believe this is one of the things that gets under people’s skin and keeps them coming back year after year – the opportunity not only to ride in spectacular surrounds, but to get off ‘the beaten track’ and explore places which they’d normally not be able to ride.

Of course in addition to the day’s riding, there were the usual afternoon activities happening back at the camp. At any given time, you’d see riders lying on the couches provided, a few cold ones on the table, and walking past I’d inevitably hear things like “I nearly saw my arse that time” or “jeez that hill was hectic hey?” or “I nearly rode into that bloody ditch” – while their buddies waited on their turn to tell their tale.

Spectators watch the 'skills challenge'

Additionally, if you didn’t feel like putting your feet up, there was the annual ‘skills challenge’ happening every afternoon – successive elimination rounds held each day to separate the skilled riders from the highly skilled riders.

One of the tasks participants needed to do was ride up against a tree and hold it for 3 seconds

After navigating a range of nasty obstacles designed to find any flaw in your offroad technique, the participants who made it through to the final round on day three faced a square dust circuit where they had to run to their bikes, don full rider gear and then chase each other down from opposite ends of the circuit, keeping in mind not to touch the tape or tyres which demarcated the corners.

Trying to catch the other rider around the square racetrack

After being dominated by the young guns for the last two years, it was 46 year-old Kim Gibbings who walked away with the BMW 650 Xchallenge worth around R75 000 – not bad for 20 minutes of work spread over three days! Mark van Rensburg picked up a rally suite for 2nd place whilst Andre Serfontein bagged himself a helmet in 3rd.

Kim Gibbings on his new Xchallenge, as BMW Motorrad general manager Lachlan Harris looks on

On Sunday morning, as the last riders gathered up their camping equipment and packed their bikes ready for departure, I spoke to event organiser Cora Forssman about future GS Challenge events under the new management team.

Rural kids helping riders across thick sand

She assured me that riders will continue to be treated to high levels of organisation and professionalism, and confessed that she already had some ideas about where the next one will be held - somewhere exciting and different apparently, although she declined to reveal any more details (sorry guys, I tried!).

“Changes are afoot” she smiled, with a twinkle in her eye.

Till next year then…