Snorkeling around Gili Meno

We have just returned to our hotel after an amazing day out. It cost us each Rp80,000 and covered everything except lunch. We left about 9:30 this morning after choosing flippers, masks & snorkels and altogether on the boat there were 10 people; half Aussie & half French with one American.
We headed out firstly to where we could see turtles. We saw many turtles, much more than we saw 6 years ago which is just lovely. We then headed closer to Gili Trawangan and snorkeled almost exactly where we snorkeled 6 years ago. Sadly the coral was nowhere near as good as it was 6 years ago- only very small patches here and there of live coral. The fish swim mostly over dead expanses. We then headed back to Gili Meno where the coral was just as i remembered it to be off Gili Trawangan, so it made me wonder how it will be in another 6 years time.
We had lunch at Gili Meno - gado gado, kangkjng plecing & tepeh/tahu with peanut sauce - on bamboo benches right on the edge of the sand before heading up the beach to look at baby turtles in a nursery setup. 4 small ponds of 5 month old turtles due to be released next month.
Our return to Gili Air included one more stop for snorkeling off Gili Meno at a place which didn't boast much live coral however the number & variety of colourful fish was the best so far.
All up it was a great day and has given me the confidence to just rent flippers & snorkels and head out ourselves in the waters off Gili Air.
Bec took her camera & got some great underwater shots which i will upload later onto the blog. One photo of a turtle swimming in particular.