Dream Trip 2009 is up and running! For inspiration, here's another of our favorite entries from last year:

An African safari can involve a lot of planning (where to go, when, and what shots you'll need) and expense (upwards of $500 per person per day for a luxe tour). And once you get out there on the veld, the whole thing can seem like a lot of time and money spent just to look at tall grass.

But when you spy one of Africa's iconic animals in its natural environment, as Dream Trip finalist Sarah Schaare did, the payoff is worth it.

"Driving in Kruger National Park there wasn't an animal in sight," writes Schaare. "Then, out of nowhere, we saw a giraffe's head hovering over some trees. Then a second one popped up. They kept coming closer, a slow strut with a slight sway/swagger of their long necks. They stopped not far from where we had parked and started this weird synchronized dance; then the big guy launched a hip-check (captured in this shot), right before he whipped around his long neck in a complete arc and slammed into the other one. It was over. The giraffes disappeared into the brush, and we just sat and stared. At that moment, we knew we had just witnessed Giraffe Fight Club."

Share your travel photos and memories in our 2009 Dream Trip Contest. You could be just a few clicks away from a $25,000 trip to anywhere you choose.