One of my favorite things to do when I travel (or even in general) is to discover places for myself. Of course, very little land nowadays is completely untouched but from my perspective, it still feels like an exploration. Couple that with my love for maps, and you have a mini treasure hunt, where my prize is experiencing what a place feels like in real life, that I’ve only known virtually.
I plan for spots that I want to go to, sure, but I also take up quests when I am actually there— “Where does that dirt road go?” "What if I take this treacherous rocky hike to the lake instead of the marked trail?” Questions like these run through my mind continuously, and I give in very easily.
One welcoming outcome of these traits is that I end up in spots that appeal to me: mentally, because I have satisfied the bug in my head to venture into the unknown and spiritually, because of what I experience on the other side.
A random dirt-road going somewhere in the Dolomites
I’m writing this page as an introduction to a chapter on all that I’ve found over the course of my many trips; for myself and for my readers. I’ll take care not to spoil it for you too much, in case you wanna go explore them yourself, but to be honest, I’d just encourage you to take the posts in this series as nothing more than inspiration to run wild and find new spots. You will find the list on the bottom of this page, but for now, let me tell you how I found them in the first place.
Personally, I’m very happy with what I have discovered so far, and I think it’s easy to go off the trodden path and carve your own maps but there are some tips that I use, and I would like to share them here.
When you are travelling to a new location, it’s natural that you don’t know all the roads, don’t know where the coast is and such. One thing that helps me is knowing the directions. Especially when you wanna venture outside of your known path and still want to end up in the right location, staying true to your north star becomes very important.
Let’s do an exercise. We’ll do more of these throughout this post and the ones that come after because not adding maps to this series would be criminal, imo.
Okay, so I want to go cliff jumping (yes) in this island in Greece, which is in the very north (the orange swimming icon at the top of the map). But I plan to explore the villages and small towns near Alkyes (the blue pin marker) as well; what path do I take?
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1r0auF-ogwqupADuN7oGIsJEs3L6whW4&usp=sharing
One obvious route is to head west to Orthonies; this is because you also get to drive around the hills and through green uninhabited lands, potentially leading to more wonderful spots, who knows. This route also doesn’t cost you a lot of time.
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However, would you then be tempted to go explore Maries next?
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Without the knowledge of directions, that’s an easy mistake to make. When you are on the road and exploring, it is trivial to lose track of time and roads which might cost you your desired destination, if you have limited time. Going to Maries doesn’t serve your objective to head north ultimately and you would end up retracing your path, which is very inefficient, and we don’t like inefficient things in this house.
Looking down the cliff
In addition to helping you select towns, directions also give you the confidence to take some risks and drive around the area, take weird exits, all while making sure you don’t end up going too south and far from the cliff jumping spot.
Just look up at the sky like our ancestors did (unless it’s cloudy and then you pull the phone out like a normie). The position of the sun really helps you know where you are headed and if it’s going to be dark soon (which will also help you in the sunset quest in the next section). You can also use big natural elements like a mountain to keep track of where you are. For example, in the trip above, if the hills appear on your right when you are driving, you’re heading north and vice-versa. Easy peasy.