Also, you can get contracts (whatever the local events/news they’re meant to be tied to) that require you to cross from an island onto the mainland, and the only way to do it is by travelling to the far north of the island (itself blocked by mountains) and crossing the shoals and then traversing a vast mountain range to the east before going back south, or by travelling to the far south of the island and paying all your crowns to catch a ship to the far south-east of the mainland and then walking a long way back north-west to get to the site.
Not what you want in the early game when crowns and resources are tight. You want some site just down the road with no awkward terrain in the way, which you somehow managed to miss on your way to the town …
