Coral Gardens, Drift Dives & Pelagic Life in Australia: Diving the Great Barrier Reef by Liveaboard

Casting off from the port, you'll enjoy lunch with a view as you head to the outer Great Barrier Reef. This afternoon will be your first dive, a check dive, and this evening you'll hop into the water for a night dive to get you reacquainted with the underwater world, before cruising north to the Ribbon Reefs.

During your Great Barrier Reef liveaboard trip you'll have the chance the go on four to five dives per day!

Another highlight of this area is The Snake Pit, which lives up to its name - its home to an abundance of sleek, twisting olive sea snakes. It's also a fantastic site for benthic creatures, including vibrant coloured clams, sea stars, nudibranchs and sea cucumbers. For those who love larger marine creatures, gaze out into the blue to catch a glimpse of reef sharks, eagle rays and trevallies flying by.

While you are here, Monolith is a stunning wall dive which cannot be missed. This lesser-known spot is frequented by a lone hammerhead, so keep your eyes peeled as you explore.

Those who are able to visit the Two Towers are in for a treat. This dramatic site consists of two bommies rising up from the seabed, at a depth of around 25 metres up to the shallows, with a deeper ridge acting as a cleaning station. Reef sharks cruise by, inquisitive olive sea snakes writhe along the seabed and anemone fish poke in and out of their swaying homes.

After days jam packed with unforgettable diving, enjoy a sunset barbecue dinner, to finish off an outstanding couple of days in this area before moving on to Lizard Island.

After your morning stroll, it's time to get back in the water for more diving at Ribbon Reefs. This evening, as you sleep, the boat will take the ten hour crossing to Osprey Reef in the Coral Sea, making it in perfect time for your morning dive.

Jump into the water to explore North Horn, where grey reef and silvertip sharks congregate and occasionally oceanic white tips can be spotted. This epic site is home to schooling bumphead parrotfish, who swirl around in the amphitheatre style reef. The dramatic reef slopes down to over a thousand metres deep and towards the 30-40 metre mark you can see a wealth of stunning soft corals.

At the southern end of Osprey Reef's entrance, Admiralty is another fantastic dive site that is particularly good in the afternoon and evening. There are swim-throughs and caves dotted across the site and there is a large marine anchor resting on the sea floor. This is a good site for potential manta encounters, as well as seeing a host of sharks and pelagic fish species.

Finally, don't miss Around the Bend, which is usually dived as a drift along the 1,000 metre wall. This site includes a manta ray cleaning station which attracts all sorts of big fish life. If you don't get lucky seeing the bigger creatures, this is also a great spot for macro life, with plenty of little critters to be found around in the shallow grotto near the boat.

Enjoy days of diving followed by relaxing evenings on the boat, comparing dive notes and planning the dives to come. During the last night at the Coral Sea, the boat will make the ten-hour journey back to the Ribbon Reefs.

For your last dive why not try Steve's Bommie? It never fails to impress, with pristine corals and memorable encounters with the fascinating wobbegong shark as well as unusual macro life including electric file clams and mantis shrimps.

For those who like good old fashioned sloping reefs, Flare Point is the perfect relaxing dive with turtles dipping up and down between the reef and the surface, mesmerizing cuttlefish changing colours in their hypnotic style and the odd spotted eagle ray swooping in. All this is topped off with a dancing, shimmering layer of brightly coloured tropical fish hovering above the reef top.

Today is also a great chance to revisit some of your favourite Ribbon Reefs sites from the previous days.

Enjoy a relaxing evening, toasting the final night of your Great Barrier reef liveaboard adventure. As you sleep, the boat will cruise back to Cairns.

Your flight home will travel through Singapore and the total journey takes around 21 hours.