The Great Barrier Reef

Overview:

The largest liv­ing struc­ture on the plan­et, Australia’s incred­i­ble Great Bar­ri­er Reef stands as not only an immense exam­ple of the sheer beau­ty and pow­er of moth­er nature, but with its com­bi­na­tion of more than 3,000 reefs, sparkling gold sandy beach­es, turquoise waters, breath-tak­ing dive spots and more than 900 roman­tic coral islands – all of which are home to more than 2,000 species of daz­zling coral fish and marine life – make the Great Bar­ri­er Reef not only the true jew­el of Aus­tralia and one of the great­est envi­ron­ments on the plan­et, but a tru­ly spe­cial won­der of the world.

In fact, so colos­sal is the Great Bar­ri­er Reefs reach, that this incred­i­ble nat­ur­al ecosys­tem is home to a third of all the planet’s liv­ing coral – with the mighty Reef, which stretch­es some 2,300km in length across the east coast of Aus­tralia – being so vast that the Great Bar­ri­er Reef remains one of the only won­ders still vis­i­ble from space. Yet despite its immense beau­ty and pre­cious marine life sus­tain­ing ecosys­tem, the Great Bar­ri­er Reef faces con­stant nat­ur­al and human inspired threats – with mass bleach­ing events, nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, oil spillages and over tourism all con­tribut­ing to the threats of the Reef’s exis­tence.

It’s for this rea­son that explo­ration of the Great Bar­ri­er Reef has seen a renewed empha­sis on sus­tain­abil­i­ty and respon­si­bil­i­ty, with cul­tur­al and explo­ration now focused on help­ing this incred­i­ble eco-sys­tem to flour­ish, as well as offer­ing trav­el­ers the chance to explore this spec­tac­u­lar under­wa­ter marine par­adise – and there’s no bet­ter way to explore this incred­i­ble won­der than tak­ing the plunge from one of the many dive or snor­kel­ing oper­a­tors that allows you to come face to face with the mul­ti-coloured coral and the curi­ous and fas­ci­nat­ing tur­tles, whales, sharks and coral fish that call the reef home.

A true adren­a­line and euphor­ic expe­ri­ence, the Great Bar­ri­er Reef is a diver’s par­adise, with the famed dive site of the SS Yon­gala and the chance to explore the thou­sands of reefs both dur­ing the day and at night being a tru­ly spe­cial expe­ri­ence. While Dive pack­ages are offered for both first time and expe­ri­enced divers – in sus­tain­able and safe areas, such is the Reef’s beau­ty and vast­ness there’s also mul­ti­ple oth­er chances to explore the Reef with­out get­ting wet – includ­ing a fly­over of the Great Bar­ri­er Reef – which allows you to tru­ly soak in the scale of this incred­i­ble won­der, a glass bot­tom boat which allows you to spot the incred­i­ble marine life or for the more inno­v­a­tive options you can try the expe­ri­ence of tak­ing an under­wa­ter scoot­er or a mini-sub­ma­rine to explore the reef- which allows you to remain dry while com­ing face to face with the marine life in this incred­i­ble won­der.

Along­side the under­wa­ter par­adise, the Great Bar­ri­er Reef also includes some of the worlds great­est islands, includ­ing the “gate­way to heav­en” of the Whit­sun­day islands – a group of 74 day­dream islands whose high­light is undoubt­ed­ly the gold­en swirling sands of White­haven beach – which is flanked on either side by clear turquoise waters for a tru­ly stun­ning nat­ur­al par­adise.

Home also to the idyl­lic reef islands of Green, Fitzroy and the well named Mag­net­ic and Lizard islands – all of which see gold­en sands mixed with pris­tine snorkelling con­di­tions, the Great Bar­ri­er Reef is tru­ly spe­cial – and also offers a much-need­ed sanc­tu­ary for the endan­gered Hump­back Whales in the Aus­tralian Win­ter and for Tur­tles in the sum­mer – who are known to fre­quent the reef and beach­es dur­ing the cool­er sum­mer months to take advan­tage of their pro­tec­tive sta­tus in Aus­tralia to lay their eggs.

One of the world’s tru­ly spe­cial and mag­i­cal places, the grow­ing pro­tec­tions and con­ser­va­tion efforts has allowed for the Great Bar­ri­ers Reefs incred­i­ble serene under­wa­ter par­adise – that is team­ing with eas­i­ly explorable kalei­do­scop­i­cal­ly coloured coral and marine life — to flour­ish, which com­bined with the daz­zling idyl­lic islands stretched over such a vast area that are both eas­i­ly acces­si­ble and explored makes the Great Bar­ri­er Reef both a tru­ly incred­i­ble nat­ur­al eco-sys­tem and undoubt­ed­ly one of the great­est won­ders of the world.

Where:

A tru­ly spe­cial won­der, the vast size of the Great Bar­ri­er Reef see’s it occu­py a spe­cial place across the North East of Aus­tralia and the state of Queens­land. The focal point of the well named Coral Sea, the Great Bar­ri­er Reef is eas­i­ly found and accessed from a range of towns across Queens­land – with the Reef, which stretch­es from the tip of the Cape York Pen­suin­la, along­side the towns of Cairns, Port Dou­glas and Townsville down to the famed brew­ery town of Bund­aberg, with the Great Bar­ri­er pro­vid­ing both a valu­able source of tourism income and idyl­lic set­tings for these great Aus­tralian towns.

Getting There:

Stretch­ing across more than 2,300 kilo­me­tres, the incred­i­ble won­der of the Great Bar­ri­er Reef is undoubt­ed­ly one of the jew­els of Aus­tralia and a key eco­nom­ic tourism gen­er­a­tor, which com­bined with its sta­tus as one of the great­est dive sites in the worlds and being home to some of the most daz­zling and spe­cial islands on the plan­et means that acces­si­bil­i­ty to this nat­ur­al phe­nom­e­non has now become incred­i­bly easy.

While you can access the Reef and its islands from across the east­ern coast of the Aus­tralian State of Queens­land – the charm­ing city of Cairns is con­sid­ered the gate­way to the Great Bar­ri­er Reef – and its here that we’d advise explor­ers to head to as a start­ing point to get to the Great Bar­ri­er Reef.

Lying about 2 hours flight north of the major city of Bris­bane, Cairns can be reached both by direct inter­na­tion­al flights or by domes­tic flights from across Aus­tralia and is served by a series of major inter­na­tion­al air­lines, includ­ing the main Aus­tralian air­line of Qan­tas.

Along­side fly­ing into Cairns you’ll also find the area ser­viced by bus­es – with the Aus­tralian grey­hound see­ing the city ser­viced from along the east­ern coast of Aus­tralia and as far north as Dar­win – which makes for a great way to reach the gate­way to the Reef once with­in Aus­tralia.

From Cairns access to the Great Bar­ri­er Reef is typ­i­cal­ly done by boat – and you’ll find a range of tour options and pri­vate hire options to vis­it and dive with­in the Reef out of Cairns,

with their being half day, full day and mul­ti day options which can suit every trav­ellers bud­get and com­fort require­ments – with these tours eas­i­ly booked both online and in per­son across the whole of Cairns.

For those want­i­ng to explore more of the Reef then there’s the option to both take a flight over it, as well as hire a car of jump on a bus and head town the coast to explore some of the oth­er pop­u­lar dive sights – includ­ing the SS Yon­gala – from cities such as Townsville.

It’s also a great idea to make a lit­tle time to take on a cou­ple of excur­sions to the islands of the Great Bar­ri­er Reef – and espe­cial­ly the Whit­sun­day islands and the incred­i­ble Whit­sun­day Beach, whose wavy sands are the stuff of dreams. Against as with all the Bar­ri­er Reef these islands can be eas­i­ly accessed on day trips from Cairns, Port Dou­glas or by head­ing to towns along the east­ern coast of Queens­land and chart­ing a boat, for those who want to explore the islands out­side of a tour com­pa­ny.

A vast and tru­ly beau­ti­ful won­der, there’s a range of options to explore the Great Bar­ri­er Reef and it tru­ly is an immense won­der, so for get­ting there it’s as easy as head­ing to the town of Cairns and then decid­ing on which tour, boat com­pa­ny or method of explor­ing works best for you as you set out to explore this incred­i­ble won­der of the world.

Best time to Visit:

Incred­i­ble all year round – and home to thou­sands of unique marine life and kalei­do­scop­ic coral the Great Bar­ri­er can be explored all year round – although undoubt­ed­ly the best time to vis­it is in Australia’s win­ter and spring months – where you’ll find the tem­per­a­tures cool­er, boats a plen­ty and some of the Marine Life – includ­ing whales and dol­phins in full flow across the Reef.

Vis­it­ing in these months – between June and Octo­ber – will also see you not only avoid the wet sea­son – and the cyclone and box jel­ly­fish sea­son (Novem­ber) but for Divers it also rep­re­sents a great time to vis­it with vis­i­bil­i­ty and clear­er waters at their peak dur­ing these months. For those oper­at­ing on a bud­get, we’d encour­age you to vis­it at the start of June if pos­si­ble – or be pre­pared to get the end of the wet sea­son and head towards the Reef in May – as it’s dur­ing these months that you’ll find prices on accom­mo­da­tion and tours at their low­est.

So while the Reef is tru­ly spe­cial all year round – for the absolute best expe­ri­ence and to give your­self the best chance of clear skies, turquoise waters, immense vis­i­bil­i­ty and the chance to spot and dive along­side incred­i­ble Marine life – and ulti­mate­ly expe­ri­ence the best of the Great Bar­ri­er Reef, we’d real­ly encour­age you to vis­it between the months of June and Octo­ber.

How long to stay

A tru­ly incred­i­ble place – with more than 3,000 reefs and 900 incred­i­ble islands – and some of the best div­ing in the world – it’s pos­si­ble to tru­ly lose your­self in the Great Bar­ri­er Reef and spend days, weeks and even months explor­ing the incred­i­ble marine life and sheer beau­ty that makes up this stun­ning nat­ur­al won­der.

But with con­sid­er­a­tion of costs, prac­ti­cal­i­ties and like­ly work and life com­mit­ments trips to the Reef are sad­ly like­ly to be short­er than any explor­er would like and there’s a good chance that all of this stun­ning won­der will not be explored on a sin­gle trip.

Con­sid­er­ing the many incred­i­ble dive sights, and our rec­om­men­da­tion to get at least one night dive in as well as vis­it the incred­i­ble islands across the Great Bar­ri­er Reef and we’d rec­om­mend spend­ing at least three days in the Great Bar­ri­er Reef as an absolute min­i­mum. While three days won’t see you hit every sin­gle dive spot – it’s a much bet­ter option that vis­it­ing the Reef for one day on a day trip from Cairns and gives you enough of a chance to not only encounter some incred­i­ble Marine Life, while also giv­ing you an option to re-arrange a trip if bad weath­er or adverse div­ing con­di­tions should hit.

So while we’d encour­age you to bud­get as much time as pos­si­ble at the Great Bar­ri­er Reef – as it tru­ly is pos­si­ble to spend unlim­it­ed time explor­ing this great won­der – as an absolute min­i­mum you need to bud­get 3 days to explore this incred­i­ble won­der.

Top Tip

Along­side being beau­ti­ful, the Great Bar­ri­er Reef, Cairns and Aus­tralia as a whole is also an incred­i­ble safe and wel­com­ing place to vis­it – and so top tips for any vis­it to the Great Bar­ri­er Reef are can­tered on ensur­ing you get the best val­ue out of this incred­i­ble won­der, mak­ing sure you stay safe and respect­ful when div­ing and vis­it­ing respon­si­bly.

- First up, when vis­it­ing the Great Bar­ri­er Reef we’d strong­ly advise to have your itin­er­ary to hand well in advance, not­ing how you want to explore the Reef and par­tic­u­lar­ly for Divers how many dives you want to do and where. While the Great Bar­ri­er Reef is incred­i­ble acces­si­ble, it has been known to reach its tourism lim­its in the peak sea­son, which com­bined also with rush­es on accom­mo­da­tion means that plan­ning a trip in advance can not only save you mon­ey on the bud­get front but can ensure that your vis­it to this incred­i­ble won­der is every­thing you’ve dreamed off we’d rec­om­mend mak­ing sure you have a plan and booked your trips well in advance.

- Sec­ond­ly – and per­haps most impor­tant­ly, for those div­ing it’s para­mount that you respect the coral and marine life in the reef – not seek­ing to dis­rupt the incred­i­ble ecosys­tems under­wa­ter. To ensure this expect to receive full safe­ty brief­in­gs before any dive ‑and for those who do seek to dis­rupt the Reef you can expect to be sub­ject to strong reprisals from the Aus­tralian Gov­ern­ment.

- We’d also advise that Dives are only tak­en on by indi­vid­u­als con­fi­dent in the water – although the Reef is nor­mal­ly a calm and serene envi­ron­ment, there are occa­sion­al­ly rough tides and chal­leng­ing weath­er which can test Divers Skills. For those who haven’t dived before but want to give it a shot on the reef, there are a range of induc­tion dives that can be done – which are ful­ly super­vised by Dive Mas­ters – and you can expect these intro­duc­tion Dives to come with a full safe­ty brief­ing, with a par­tic­u­lar empha­sis on prop­er breath­ing tech­niques – to make sure your oxy­gen lasts for as long as pos­si­ble.

- For those who explore fur­ther afield of the Great Bar­ri­er Reef and in par­tic­u­lar the many incred­i­ble islands of this stun­ning won­der, do ensure you vis­it respon­si­bly and make sure you observe and respect the cul­ture and cus­toms of the Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple who still call the Islands home. Across the many islands of the Great Bar­ri­er Reef you can expect to find more than 70 Abo­rig­ine groups still liv­ing in the lands and its essen­tial that you show the lands and the cul­ture respect when vis­it­ing.

- Final­ly while the Reef is an incred­i­ble place to vis­it – it does come with dan­ger, and par­tic­u­lar­ly in the rainy sea­son the Reef is known to be the nest­ing place of the fear­some boxed jel­ly­fish – who are capa­ble of deliv­er­ing a wicked sting which can be so strong it’s been known to cause death – so for those trav­el­ling to the Great Bar­ri­er Reef in the rainy sea­sons be sure to wear appro­pri­ate body­suits and avoid dis­turb­ing or inter­act­ing with the dead­ly box Jel­ly­fish.

Cost:

An immense won­der, the Great Bar­ri­er Reef does require a bud­get to be tru­ly explored – luck­i­ly though giv­en the vast size of this incred­i­ble ecosys­tem, and its focal point as a eco­nom­ic tourism gen­er­a­tor for the state of Queens­land there’s a range of options that can suit most trav­ellers seek­ing to dive or expe­ri­ence the Great Bar­ri­er Reef.

Start­ing with flights and get­ting there, and the eas­i­est option is to fly into the city of Cairns – con­sid­ered the Great Bar­ri­ers Reef pre­mier town and from where the tour boats and dive cen­tres oper­ate out of. Flights to Cairns can be on the expen­sive side – with domes­tic flights from across Aus­tralia start­ing at $200 Aud and some­time stretch­ing as far as $600 Aud based on sea­son, with inter­na­tion­al flights into Cairns also com­ing in at between $500 Aud — $1500 Aud based on your start­ing point – so we’d advise to bud­get and book well in advance to get to Cairns.

Once in Cairns and you have the option to ease the pres­sure on your bud­get a lit­tle bit if required, with accom­mo­da­tion options rang­ing from $10 Aud hos­tels to pre­mi­um hotels at $200 Aud a night – so there’s a range of com­fort and bud­get options on the accom­mo­da­tion side in Cairns.

The same applies for explor­ing the Reef – which has to be done by a tour, par­tic­u­lar­ly for those div­ing, with there being three broad cost cat­e­gories, basic, advanced and mul­ti-day tours.

For those on a basic tour you can expect to hit 2–3 dive spots on a day trip clos­er to the town of cairns – with prices for these trips start­ing from $130 Aud and a day out on these trips – which can give you the absolute best of the Reef and see you encounter flocks of Marine Life includ­ing tur­tles, whales and sharks – giv­ing you plen­ty of pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties and an incred­i­ble expe­ri­ence on this immense won­der.

For those who want to expe­ri­ence some of the famed reefs that lie fur­ther ashore from the town of Cairns – includ­ing the Agin­court Reef – which is well worth the mon­ey, you’ll need to bud­get a lit­tle bit more and get your­self on an advanced trip, with these advanced trips aimed at spe­cialised divers and begin­ning in price from $200 Aud – and these tours often bud­get­ing for a full day of your time and leav­ing from both Cairns and Townsville.

Final­ly for those who want the pre­mier expe­ri­ence out on the reef, there is the option of a mul­ti-day live­aboard tour – which see’s you treat­ed to mul­ti­ple dives and giv­ing you the unique expe­ri­ence of sleep­ing on a boat and on the reef. These tours can last any where from between 2- 7 days – depend­ing on the reef sites you wish to vis­it, and sub­se­quent­ly the prices will rise from between $400 to $300 Aud depend­ing on the length of stay and the dive spots. Do bear in mind thought that even thought these tours may seem expen­sive you’ll be sav­ing on accom­mo­da­tion back in Cairns – and you’ll be treat­ed to one of the ulti­mate Reef expe­ri­ences, the oppor­tu­ni­ty to both sleep and watch the sun­set over this incred­i­ble won­der – which is a tru­ly bliss­ful expe­ri­ence.

The tours them­selves are eas­i­ly booked online or in per­son at one of the many dive sites – and we’d also advise bud­get­ing an extra $30 Aud per day for whichev­er tour you opt for, to allow for the pos­si­bil­i­ty of hir­ing a cam­era, pur­chas­ing pho­tos and for some well-deserved post dive snacks.

For those want to get a tru­ly stun­ning pho­to and to explore the reef fur­ther we’d encour­age you to indulge in a reef plane trip – which leaves from the Cairns air­port and takes explor­ers up above the Reef – where you can wit­ness the full scale of the incred­i­ble turquoise waters and shin­ning Coral Reef and snap an incred­i­ble pho­to. We’d also encour­age set­ting aside both time and mon­ey for a trip to some of the oth­er jew­els of the Great Bar­ri­er Reef and the sur­round­ing area – includ­ing the daz­zling gold­en sands of the Whit­sun­day Islands and the immac­u­late rain­forests of Dain­tree – with both of these incred­i­ble spots eas­i­ly vis­itable by car or on a tour – with one day tour prices from Cairns start­ing at $150Aud for both.

Bud­get­ing as well at least $20 Aud a day for food, and an extra $50 Aud for gear includ­ing sun­screen, flip flops and an under­wa­ter cam­era and it’s pos­si­ble to cov­er the great bar­ri­er reef for as lit­tle $250 Aud on a quick trip not includ­ing flights – but we’d advise bud­get­ing at least $700 Aud and prefer­able $1000 Aud (not includ­ing flights) to take in all that this incred­i­ble won­der has to offer.

Fun Fact:

Along­side being one of the sev­en nat­ur­al won­ders of the world and vis­i­ble from Space – the Great Bar­ri­er Reef is offi­cial­ly the worlds largest reef sys­tem – with the Great Bar­ri­er Reef being home to a vast array of incred­i­ble marine life, with the more than 5000 dif­fer­ent ani­mal species that call the Reef home. includ­ing thou­sands of indi­vid­ual coral fish species, 6 dif­fer­ent species of curi­ous tur­tle and more than 40 dif­fer­ent whales, sharks and dol­phins – all of whom are found in the 400 dif­fer­ent mul­ti-coloured coral species that sit on the floor of this incred­i­ble worlds largest reef.

While the threats to the Reef con­tin­ue and are many – includ­ing over tourism, glob­al warm­ing and bleach­ing, the resilience of the Reef — along­side its beau­ty – is one of the mar­vels of this incred­i­ble eco-sys­tem, with a bleached reef being capa­ble of reviv­ing itself, which com­bined with the con­ser­va­tion effort to man­age tourism and reduce the impact of chem­i­cal run off and dump­ing is help­ing to ensure this mil­lions of years old incred­i­ble won­der of the world can be both main­tained and hope­ful­ly con­tin­ue to stand as one of the great­est nat­ur­al beau­ty spots on the plan­et.

Best photo spot:

One of the most spec­tac­u­lar and beau­ti­ful nat­ur­al won­ders on the plan­et – the Great Bar­ri­er Reef is a tru­ly spe­cial place for all pho­tog­ra­phers and explor­ers – but undoubt­ed­ly holds a spe­cial place for divers, with the turquoise waters, which are home to mul­ti-coloured pris­tine coral and thou­sands of rare fish and marine life mak­ing the Reef an unequalled under­wa­ter pho­tog­ra­phers par­adise.

Tru­ly breath-tak­ing, tak­ing the plunge to cap­ture the exot­ic marine life of the Reef requires spe­cial­ist cam­era – which can be hired on site or pro­vid­ed by div­ing com­pa­nies – and thanks to the deep-water vis­i­bil­i­ty, divers can expect to cap­ture moments at this incred­i­ble won­der that will tru­ly last a life­time.

Spe­cial also from the ground and the air, the beau­ty of the waters are com­pli­ment­ed with mag­i­cal shots of gold­en sands and roman­tic islands – with the gold­en wavy sands of the Whit­sun­day islands being tru­ly spe­cial and allow­ing all explor­ers to cap­ture the beau­ty of the Great Bar­ri­er Reef.

A tru­ly incred­i­ble won­der of the world, the vast size of the Great Bar­ri­er Reef – com­bined with find­ing the best dive spots – can make it chal­leng­ing to ensure you leave this par­adise with tru­ly spe­cial shots, so to make things as easy as pos­si­ble we’ve round­ed up our favourite dive spots (from expe­ri­ence!) and top beau­ty spots across this incred­i­ble won­der of the world.

Dive Spots:

SS Yongala

Start­ing with Dive Spots first, and a dive at the sunken wreck­age of the 350 foot SS Yon­gala is tru­ly spe­cial – and undoubt­ed­ly deserv­ing of a place on any top list of the world’s best and most excit­ing dive sites.

Known for its vast col­lec­tion of rare hunters – a dive on the SS Yon­gala is not for the faint heart­ed, as you can expect to come face to face with – and have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to pho­to­graph some of the most feared and rare ani­mals on the plan­et – includ­ing Bull and Gui­tar sharks (Great Whites are not known to fre­quent the boat !), sea snakes, giant Man­ta Rays, bar­racu­da and even giant hump­back and whale sharks – mak­ing it a tru­ly spe­cial place to cap­ture incred­i­ble pho­tos of some of the rarest and most beau­ti­ful marine life on the plan­et.

Along­side this, the Yon­gala wreck­age is also home to vast num­bers of incred­i­ble mul­ti-coloured bright fish – includ­ing fam­i­lies of the always pop­u­lar ‘Nemo Fish’ queen­fish and snap­pers – with green tur­tles also known to favour the wreck site, again pro­vid­ing fan­tas­tic pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties of this incred­i­ble icon of the Great Bar­ri­er Reef.

A tru­ly spe­cial place for divers – and one that will see you div­ing with schools of fish, the Yon­gala is found south of Cairns in the town of Townsville – and along­side being a world class div­ing site, was also the scene of a trag­ic dis­as­ter – with the boat, which sunk in 1911 see­ing the full crew – some 121 men sad­ly los­ing their lives.

Now a fan­tas­tic place to encounter the best of the worlds marine life and a true par­adise for under­wa­ter pho­tog­ra­phers, be warned that you’ll need a boat to reach the site as well as a div­ing licence – with the wreck lying some 80 feet down from the sur­face, but for those who brave the chance to vis­it this incred­i­ble site – team­ing with stun­ning marine life and pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties.

The Agincourt Reef 

The clas­sic Great Bar­ri­er Reef, and one that can be enjoyed by snorkellers and divers alike, the Agin­court reef is the first port of call for trips head­ing out of Cairns to show off the best of the Great Bar­ri­er Reef – with the Agin­court Reef, which is made up of mul­ti­ple dive sites being home to kalei­do­scop­ic coral, bright colonies of curi­ous fish and team­ing with tur­tles, sharks and even whales.

A tru­ly spe­cial place, and one that gives the Great Bar­ri­er reef its rep­u­ta­tion as a stun­ning won­der of the world, the Agin­court reef offers fan­tas­tic pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties from its shal­lows thanks to the turquoise and clear waters of the Reef– and such is the vast amount of coral and marine life here that its even pos­si­ble to take incred­i­ble pho­tos of both the Reef and the Reef’s res­i­dents with­out enter­ing the water.

A pop­u­lar spot – for good rea­son – the Agin­court Reef can get incred­i­ble busy dur­ing the peak sea­son, despite the many dive spots, so we’d advise mak­ing sure you not only book in advance, but try and find a tour that leaves ear­li­er than oth­ers, so you can enjoy the serene expe­ri­ence of div­ing in the Great Bar­ri­er Reef sur­round­ed by the planet’s best marine life and coral and grab some spec­tac­u­lar and unin­ter­rupt­ed pho­tos.

The Ribbon Reef (Cod Hole & Minke Whales)

Tru­ly Mag­i­cal the turquoise waters of Rib­bon Reef are home to some of the world’s best coral and are a fan­tas­tic place to grab stun­ning pho­tos of the nat­ur­al beau­ty of the Great Bar­ri­er Reef – as well of course cap­ture some great pho­tos of the Marine Life that are found in droves at this incred­i­ble dive spot.

The Rib­bon Reefs them­selves are divid­ed into a series of dive sites, and undoubt­ed­ly in our view the best of these when it comes to cap­tur­ing stun­ning pho­tos of Marine Life is the famed site of Reef Num­ber 10 – which is known affec­tion­ate­ly as Cod Hole – the best spot across the Great Bar­ri­er Reef for snap­ping a pho­to of — and along­side the famous Aus­tralia pota­to cod, a tame and pho­to­genic giant fish – that makes for one of the best and most fun pho­tos across the whole of this incred­i­ble won­der.

Team­ing with colonies of Nemo Fish, cut­tle­fish and fam­i­lies of Tur­tles, the Rib­bon Reef is also par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial in the Aus­tralian win­ter months of June and July when it is vis­it­ed by pods of dwarf Minke Whales. With these 20 feet giants of the sea being not only pho­tograph­able from the Rib­bon Reef but also being known for being incred­i­bly curi­ous and even approach­ing divers for a tru­ly spe­cial expe­ri­ence – as they pose for pho­tos for a mag­i­cal snap.

A stun­ning reef, the Rib­bon Reefs can be explored all year around – and have a rep­u­ta­tion as an easy and less stren­u­ous dive site in com­par­i­son to oth­ers, but above all the Rib­bon Reefs offer incred­i­ble pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties and unique expe­ri­ences which make it one of the tru­ly spe­cial div­ing spots in the incred­i­ble won­der of the Great Bar­ri­er Reef.

North Horn, Osprey Reef

The teardrop reef, the North Horn of Osprey Reef has gained a rep­u­ta­tion of being not only a stun­ning exam­ple of the nat­ur­al beau­ty of the Reefs of the won­der, but thanks to many species of shark – includ­ing the famed grey Reef Sharks — that call the North Horn home it makes for a tru­ly incred­i­ble expe­ri­ence and pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty.

Harm­less (in the most part) to humans, the grey reef sharks found here can reach 8 feet and are known to not only gath­er in pods but also be calm with the pres­ence of divers amongst them – mak­ing for an adren­a­line ris­ing expe­ri­ence. While the reef sharks tak­en the head­lines, as an ever present at the North Horn, the osprey reef is also blessed with oth­er sharks includ­ing ham­mer­heads and tiger sharks, as well as large schools of man­ta rays, pota­to fish and giant tuna – mak­ing dives at the North Horn a tru­ly incred­i­ble expe­ri­ence.

A dive site that should be under­tak­en with an expe­ri­enced dive mas­ter and not as a solo dive, we’d also rec­om­mend mak­ing time to sched­ule a night dive at the North Horn – not just because the marine life is known to be more active in the evening, but also so you can cap­ture the west­ern wall of the North Horn which is tru­ly spec­tac­u­lar in the evening, as the fan­tas­tic vis­i­bil­i­ty allows you to cap­ture one of the most incred­i­ble pho­tos of your time at the Great Bar­ri­er Reef.

Beauty Spots:

From the Skies:

While see­ing the vast swatch­es of coral under­wa­ter and from atop the deck of a boat will give you incred­i­ble shots of the reef – which in some instances will stretch to the hori­zon – to tru­ly appre­ci­ate the vast scale and beau­ty of the Great Bar­ri­er Reef it’s nec­es­sary to take to the skies in the form of a sea­plane and soar over this incred­i­ble won­der.

Giv­ing you a chance to grab a pho­to of the Bar­ri­er Reef’s Ocean team­ing with vis­i­ble coral below its sur­face, a ride in a sea plane will also see you get a birds eye view over some of the incred­i­ble islands that make up the Great Bar­ri­er Reef – includ­ing Green Island and Mag­net­ic Island as well as the pic­ture per­fect spot of Heart Reef a tru­ly spe­cial island in the roman­tic shape of a heart – for what is a tru­ly mag­i­cal pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty.

While a trip in a reef plane is not cheap – you can expect to pay at least $150 Aud – it does pro­vide some spec­tac­u­lar pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties, and if you get the chance we’d also advise opt­ing for a plane trip that takes you as far south over the reef to the incred­i­ble Whit­sun­day Islands – with the view from above giv­ing you a unique chance to grab a tru­ly spe­cial pho­to of this par­adise islands and their unique wavy sand curves.

Whitsunday Islands

Along­side view­ing the incred­i­ble Whit­sun­day islands from the air, it’s pos­si­ble to vis­it these stun­ning islands via boat and then on foot – as you jour­ney across these incred­i­ble 74 islands which are found just next to the Great Bar­ri­er Reef, with the gold­en sands, turquoise waters and trop­i­cal islands mak­ing for a series of stun­ning snaps.

While each of the islands are gor­geous, we’d advise set­ting aside some time to check out the gold­en sands and turquoise waters of Hamil­ton Island and of course make a trip to White­haven Beach – one of the true icons of the Great Bar­ri­er Reef – with this beach being undoubt­ed­ly one of the most gor­geous on the plan­et thanks to its clear waters and wavy sands – with a trip to the top of the Hill Inlet Look­out being a fan­tas­tic place to grab a stun­ning pho­to of this tru­ly mag­i­cal beach.

Eas­i­ly found – and heav­i­ly adver­tised – the Whit­sun­day islands can be incred­i­bly pop­u­lar, so we’d advise vis­it­ing in either the off sea­son or mak­ing sure you get on a tour that see’s you at the islands – and par­tic­u­lar­ly White­haven beach at sun­rise in order to give your­self the best chance of cap­tur­ing the pic­ture-per­fect shot of these incred­i­ble islands – and the accom­pa­ny­ing reef.

The Reef from a Boat

While we’d strong­ly encour­age explor­ing the Reef under­wa­ter to get the best shots, for those who don’t fan­cy get­ting them­selves wet – it’s entire­ly pos­si­ble to cap­ture incred­i­ble pho­tos of the vast marine life and beau­ti­ful coral from either atop a boat – or from a glass bot­tom-boat.

Giv­ing you a glimpse of the beau­ty of the Great Bar­ri­er Reef, Snap­ping pho­tos from either kind of boat can pro­vide you with pho­tos of Tur­tles breach­ing the turquoise waters of the sur­face as well as some of the bright mul­ti-coloured coral that lingers before the sur­face – with it also being pos­si­ble to snap a range of the thou­sands of reef fish that lurk with­in them – includ­ing the always pho­to­genic Nemo fish – and of course on a lucky day snap whales, sharks and dol­phins, all from the com­fort of your boat.

A nice way to explore the Reef – par­tic­u­lar­ly in the off sea­sons or on a day cloud­ed by rain­storms – the chance to pho­to­graph the won­ders of the Reef is always spe­cial, and doing so from a boat on the reef is one of the great ways to ensure you get to expe­ri­ence this incred­i­ble won­der while snap­ping some breath-tak­ing pho­tos of the life above and below it.

Sunset

Final­ly, while the Reef is tru­ly spe­cial dur­ing the day and at night, there’s some­thing tru­ly mag­i­cal about wit­ness­ing a sun­set on the Great Bar­ri­er Reef – where the descend­ing sun lights up the incred­i­ble turquoise waters and cre­ates a mirage of light stretch­ing across the coral-soaked waters stretch­ing to the hori­zon – for a tru­ly spe­cial event and an incred­i­ble pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty.

A pure spec­ta­cle – you’ll need to find your­self a boat, a tour com­pa­ny or an island on the Reef where you can stay out beyond the typ­i­cal tour sched­ule, but for those who do you can expect to toast this incred­i­ble won­der while wit­ness­ing a sky and Reef filled with bright deep orange light for what is undoubt­ed­ly one of the great­est pho­tos on the plan­et – and one of the many rea­sons why the Great Bar­ri­er Reef is a tru­ly incred­i­ble won­der of the world.