I cannot stress enough, how important is to build fast travel signs from the moment it is available to you. Put one next to your settlement, one close to starting town, one close to Padstow and the ranger tent, that sells straps, and possibly one next to the sellers hut by the lake, of which other side lives the fishermen. That seller at the north end of that lake, sells straps as well (one strap per day per trader).
You WILL BE TRAVELLING A LOT between those villages, looking for quests and to trade. At the beginning I thought it is not worth to spend 150 points for each sign, BUT IT IS TOTALLY WORTH IT, From quest and from trophies (you need to research technologies for trophies) you will get tones of renown points, no problem. So do yourself a favor and don't run back and forth every single time you need to visit any of those places.
Last but not least - spend some time to organize your workers and let them do the grinding and crafting, you focus on making quests and possibly hunt animals for meat and trophy ingredients, you will progress so, so much faster.