Here are a couple of updates from two of our Silicon Power sponsorships. By collaborating with the Bikings Project and the Tirant Lo Blanc high school in Spain, we not only help solve problems for our product users but, we also get a glimpse into the world of some really interesting people who do interesting things.

Bikings Project Update:

“Our adventure started in the beginnings of 2018. Daniel and Franco with some experience acquired in the art of traveling by bicycle and me, with no knowledge at all. Together, we began what would be an intense and dedicated journey, in which we would explore our strengths but more than anything, our shortcomings. With the idea of documenting the day to day of the trip, we departed from Perth, Western Australia, and plan to make the whole way around the country finishing in Perth again. This expedition covers 16,000 kilometers through varied landscapes, countless people, millions of animals and, above all, personal development.

I am writing after having traveled more than half the way with The Bikings Project. Observing everything that has been done, we can recognize ourselves more mature, eager to work and, without a doubt, with a lot of footage to do it. We have recordings of the 9000 km already made with everything that this means. People, live gigs, sporting events, meals, failures, events, landscapes and heaps of encounters. All this is the result of our constant work to get new stories and experiences. Needless to say, this information is valuable and having Silicon Power is essential since its external storage disks are a guarantee of resistance to shocks while cycling, something we do frequently. The ones we choose are the Armor A85M and the Armor A65M. Both of them work and are more than reliable and also waterproof.

Cairns is the place we chose to settle down until March 2019. The wet season is about to start, where it rains from December to March so it is the only option we have. We still have to cross the Northern Territory and the remainder of Western Australia to finalize the expedition (almost 8000 km more).

This is by far, the most extreme challenge we will have to endure the adventure because of the high temperatures, the lack of people and the long distances between provision places. The time we have now will find us organizing the route to come, covering every point to perform wisely and as safely as possible, leaving no loose ends.

We are living in a house in the mountain, in a town called Mareeba, 60 km from Cairns city. A house we found after looking for some house sitting opportunities (taking care of a house and animals while the owners are away). The land is large and there are trees of all types and shapes, many toads and two dogs. Living in a house and in the same place for such a long time is something we will definitely need to get used again. On the other hand, we are thrilled to finally have the possibility, time and place to produce what will be the first documentary of the journey.  This is the place where the magic begins to reflower again. We´ll definitely keep on cycling around the world, but first, our story in Australia.”

As of the release of this newsletter, The Bikings Project members have flown to Malaysia for a short delay in their journey.

Tirant Lo Blanc:

“Hello, my name is Xavier Gregori, and I am a teacher in the IES TIRANT LO BLANC, a High School in Valencia, Spain. This year, we started with photography as a tool for teaching new technologies.

Nowadays, young people use photography as a means of communications, but they don’t think about the technical part of photography. By teaching photography, I try to get them to think about technology.

The students that we have are about 16-17 years old, and they have never used any reflex camera. Reflex cameras help the students to stop looking for the objective and look for a reality they had never realized.

After two classes, some of them love photography and they started to do photography with their mobile phones (not only “selfies”).

A normal class starts talking about what we want to see in our memory cards after the class, what we would like to have recorded on the SDs that we install in the reflex camera. Here, the students can think about the details of our lives. They can speak to each other about their hobbies and likes. This part of the class allows us to improve, socialize, and build communication skills of the students. The topic is photography but they finish talking about themselves.

After that, I start teaching about every part of the camera, types of SD cards, about the light, the effects, and so on.

Then, we try to practice what we have studied.

With these photography classes, I hope the students could rate the details of photography, the non-linguistic language, and how, without speaking or writing, we can communicate to other people.”

The Tirant Lo Blanc has been using Silicon Power gear for a few months now. We hope we can continue to collaborate with them and hear more exciting stories about how people enjoy our products.