Why not just take sponsorship?
Because the moment a valley pays to appear here, every other valley on the site becomes suspect. A reader cannot tell which recommendations were bought, so they have to discount all of them. The money would not be worth what it costs.
What the money actually buys
Diesel, ferries and cheap rooms close enough to a lake to be standing beside it at five in the morning. Almost every piece here exists because someone slept twenty minutes away instead of two hours away, and that difference is the entire budget.
If you would rather not pay
Then do not. Everything stays free and nothing is held back. Sending a story to one person who would like it helps more than five euros does.
