There are a couple of sets of pictures that have come out recently that set my mind wandering around the world.

First up is a post on Simon Seeks listing out some of the most dangerous roads in the world. Some of the are obviously roads I won’t be travelling any time soon (like Kandahar to Kabul), but there are some (like Perdikaki Road, Greece) that would be well worth a trip if you happen to be nearby.

The second set of photos are the contestants for the annual National Geographic photo contest. They’ve shown up a couple of places, but the places to check out the best ones are on The Big Picture and of course on the collection of winners on the National Geographic site.

Nothing like an amazing picture to make you want to see where the picture came from.

There are scores of companies that are willing to give away something fairly valuable in exchange for giving them your email address and touch of demographic information. I’m not really a gambling mad, but I’m willing to hand out my email address (my spam address of course) in exchange for a slight chance to win a trip. If you’re of the same mindset and have an hour to burn, you might want to enter all of these:

• Cafe Direct to Peru
• Outside Magazine climb Mt. Rainier
• J.Crew shopping spree in New York City
• Honey Bunched of Oats escape to the Caribbean
• Travel Channel to Charlton, SC (really Travel Channel? That’s the best you’ve got? REALLY?)
• Viv Magazine to Fiji
• Johnson’s Body Care to U.S. Virgin Islands
• Ultimate Thailand Explorers competition (like the Taiwan explorers contest)
• Marriott tweet and facebook your way to Hawaii
• Hell’s Kitchen to Whistler, Canada
• Schick make your own adventure
• Grand Marnier to Las Vegas
• Islands magazine has 7 contests at the moment, none of which are to Bouvet Island
• Starwood hotels sweepstakes for enough hotel points to stay anywhere and a rental car to get there
• Good Hair (the movie) for a cruise
• Virginia tourism commission to Virginia
• Couples Retreat (another movie) to Tahiti
• PADI honeymoon diving trip to Roatan
• Rainy Day Records to the Grammy Awards
• National Geographic to see the Tarra Cotta Warriors in China

I’m sure there are other travel sweepstakes out there, so if you know of any, please post them in the comments. And less cross our fingers that someone in the Questing for Adventure communty scores one of these trips!

World in Focus, the biggest and best photo context of the year, is into full swing. The drawback is that it costs $12 to enter the contest, but the prizes include trips to Tanzania and St. Lucia, so I think it’s worth a shot. Also, I think winning the competition is anyone’s game, as I was very surprised by last year’s winner.

You can enter the contest here.

Photo: one that I’m thinking of submitting. It’s one of a couple of different pictures from Morocco that I like, but I’m indecisive when it comes to choices like this.

The photo above by Geoff Pingree is the grand prize winner of National Geographic Travel’s photo competition. I’m a little shocked. Really? The best photo? Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good picture. Congratulations to Geoff and all that, but I don’t think this is even this best picture that made it into the finals.

Check out this one by Bernardo Carvalho:

If you ask me that’s a much better picture. Though, maybe that’s why I’m not a judge in the photo contest. In any case, It’s well worth checking out all the finalists and prize winners. And then think about what picture you’ll be entering next year. It’s worth a shot.