www.sawleyshoot.com

Egerton Pink gin are now sponsoring the hood in all the fundraising social events providing pink cocktails and ‘pink bars’.  Several hood girls went along to the opening of the new Rockwell bar in the Hilton sponsored by Egerton

Two of SA’s sisters have been getting grubby. Sister Kirsty took part in the 4 day, 330km, Tour de Tuli mountain bike ride through South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe and Sister Lucia has just summited Mount Kilimanjaro last week. Read more about their adventures in the Missions section.

The Sisters threw one of Cape Town’s wildest fundraising parties ever! Naughty-cal House Party was the theme and Naughtyness was certainly on display that night. There were around 250 aptly attired guests and thanks to the generosity of Flower Walker (Petals) for the decor, and Mike Townsend (The Harbour House)for the fish and chips… and all the hard work of the Sisters, a great little sum of cash was raised for our charity. HOT photo’s and full story to follow soon.

In preparation for our GREAT CHALLENGE – to go where no beautiful girls (infact no-one) has gone before: to paddle a dragon boat from Cape Town to Robben Island and back in November, TransfitX gym and owner Johno is personal training us into shape! .. conveniently in time for bikini beach days too! MTN have come on board and donated R10 000 to our charities and Glider Sunglasses are giving us great shades to make sure we see where to go! Training in the boat has stepped up a notch and Sea Paddles are next on the program!…. watch this space!

This was the first event that officially Sisterhood UK and Sisterhood SA have competed in together! Woohoo for world domination!….

This is how SA Sister Kirsty viewed the day…

If we could have a penny every time a fellow competitor did a double take when our entourage of Sisterhood Swimmers walked past, we’d raise millions for our charity. I’d like to think they were admiring our svelte athletic figures sporting Swetty Betty cozzies, but perhaps their attention was caught by our Sisterwoods  bright “Budgie Smuggling” speedo’s. Whatever the reason for the gazes, people took note of our annual appearance at the race.

In preparing for the event, some of our swimmers braved high levels of “the dangerous algae” in the Serpentine while others graced the harbour club spa pool as guests of Al and 192.com. A week before the event 9 Sisters and one particularly lucky Wood chartered a catamaran around the Turkish coast in order to “acclimatise to the local swimming conditions”. Here we strength trained hoisting sails, stretched out our stroke in crystal clear waters and rested our bodies on the trampoline.                                                                                                                                                                                                  

The actual 6.5km Asia to Europe race was rather hellish this year. Choppy water, stronger fighting currents and a more tactical finish route saw to it that we had to work hard for the daiquiris at the end. As always, we made our way to respectable scoreboard victory with one Sister cracking a top ten post in her category and a Wood in top 20. The rest followed close behind.

Celebrations as always were a test of endurance. That party will always be remembered as an adventure in itself… Synchronised costume swopping in the middle of 360 pool, rose fuelled table dancing and a dinner fit for the hero’s we felt like. What fun!

The UK’s leading online directory www.192.com is now the Sisterhood’s new corporate sponsor

192.com tells you more about people, businesses & places in the UK than any other directory. More than just directory enquiries, 192.com lists full names, addresses, age guides, property prices, aerial photos, company & director reports, family records, & much more!

On a balmy summers evening, 4 of The Sisterhood’s toughest members took to the rugby pitch in Richmond’s Old Deer Park, as part of the newly formed “Ruck and Rollers” Touch Rugby team.

With a scant understanding of the rules other than “pass backwards, run forwards, score tries”, Amy, Suse, Vanessa and Jojo took their place on the field. Much hilarity ensued on that first match and it felt like being back at school and running around wildly on a grassy pitch with no real idea what was going on!

Needless to say the first game resulted in an 8-1 loss…but undeterred we soldiered on week after week until last night when we WON both matches! (with massive thanks to all the boys on our team that know the rules and do a lot of running around after us and a few coaching tips from a sisterwood member and england rugby legend josh lewsey!

Ruck and Rollers is a mixed team (in ability as well as sex!) and we LOVE chasing the egg shaped ball all over the pitch! The rules are simple, there’s no tackling and best of all is the free chips at The Sun Inn after every session!

If you are interested in playing this summer then get in touch with Amy

The sisterhood is linking up with Striders Edge a new high tech active clothing company for women launching in 2011 and available to buy in January 2012

Their brands ethos; An avid hiker, runner and fitness enthusiast. A need and desire for authoritative, innovative, tested and developed performance activewear specifically designed for the female.

“We think the Sisterhood are incredible. Hear the name and you’re inspired to get out there and beat your PB – a platform for die hard but beautiful women to be part of the elite. The Sisterhood epitomises the sports women we dress – aspirational female athletes who work their bodies hard and seek authoritative apparel that stands up to the elements. Like us, they truly live for fitness and the incredible outdoors. They push themselves to the limits whilst fundraising to better the world. We push our products to the limits to aid the contemporary breed of active women. A perfect partnership”

Katy Biddulph, Striders Edge Founder

www.stridersedge.com

The Freedom Swim is one of the toughest, most extreme long-distance cold water sea swim races in the world – traditionally 7.5km from Robben Island to Blouberg, Cape Town. In May this year Sister Kirsty decided to brave the icy shark infested waters in what was The Sisterhood South Africa’s first local event!

Here is how she saw it…

The day of the race dawned and there was not a cloud in the sky! The boats were ready and the water was a warm 13°C – I still pinch myself saying it was warm but after training in 10.5°C to 13°C it is amazing how every degree counts. Supported by Sisters Lucia and Tiffany and partnered with an ex professional rugby player Guy, we set out on our boats to Robben Island for the start.

We had choices…

1. 1. Teams of up to four members – naturally we chose just the two of us.
2. 2. Wetsuits or no wetsuits – obviously not. Speedo, cap and goggles only for the purists.
3. 3. Protective layer of Vaseline or not – what do you think?

Unfortunately the conditions deteriorated rapidly that morning. By the time we were positioned off Nelson Mandela’s old prison island there was a 25 knot wind, a 4 metre swell and three of the support boats had sank! We were still determined to swim but the organisers were forced to postpone the event until the following day when the NSRI were called to help two tankers that had bumped into each other while seeking refuge from the stormy seas.

With safety concerns and ominous weather conditions looming for the Sunday an alternative swim course had to be arranged. Little did we know that the new route would end up being longer, harder and a finger freezing 11°C (51°F) water temperature!

The race was intense and many swimmers did not make it to the end. In fact only one thirds of the solo swimmers and half the teams had what it took to cross the finish line. There were numerous swimmers treated for hypothermia and some shipped straight off to hospital. Thanks to the support of Sisters Lucia and Tiff I managed to stay on top of my game and loved the challenge the cold water posed. A slideshow of images showing Sisters facing challenges all over the world played in my mind as The Killers “Human” rang in my throbbing ears.. just like our promo video!  After the race in the medical tent the doctors discovered my core temperature had dropped to 30.5°C.Theoretically one would be classified as moderately hypothermic. I felt surprisingly fine…perhaps supporting the perceived theory that Sisterhood girls are perhaps somewhat superhuman…or perhaps it had something to do with the winner, a strapping Bulgarian World No1 open water swimmer, personally interested in how I found the swim. Tough to say…

Anyway, somewhere on that hour and a half swim I was bitten by the bug. I am already excited to partake in the Robben Island route next year alongside fellow Sisters including Lucia and Tiff in the water. Until then you will find me on Camps Bay or Clifton beach a Sunday morning braving the icy water, dodging sharks, for a little training and the world best hangover remedy. See you there?

Thanks to Guy for kindly sponsoring our boat. ]]> http://www.sisterhoodchallenge.com/2011/05/robbin-island-cape-town-swim/feed/ 0