The Reptile Jungle in Limassol – a wonderland for those who love snakes, lizards, spiders, scorpions and more. It was hands down the best place Goobie had visited all year. For me, it was the place where I faced – literally – a lifelong fear.

The Reptile Jungle is on the left-hand side of Franklin Roosevelt Street, leading into Limassol – the road that takes you from My Mall in the direction of Limassol Old Town. Or, for parents, it’s the road that Bubble Park is on, though not as far along. You can spot it a mile away because it’s bright green and there’s a massive plastic alligator out the front.

‘Mummy is going to hold a tarantula!’

For some reason, these words came out of my mouth as we were driving to the Reptile Jungle.

‘I’m scared of big spiders so I’m going to face my fear.’

I think I was trying to set a good example. Or perhaps I was after an adrenaline rush.

Idiot.

I arrived feeling a tad nauseated.

The Reptile Jungle costs €5 for adults, €3 for children and Herc was free. We bought our tickets and stepped inside.

The place was larger than I’d expected and decked out to look like a jungle, with camouflage on the ceiling and big leaves everywhere. It was spotlessly clean.

My first and main impression was how alert the animals were. Just inside the door, this creature grinned at us:

A tegu walked up to have a good look at Herc. Herc had a good look back.

We rounded the corner and came face to face with a king cobra. A king cobra! These snakes can deliver fatal bites to humans and even elephants. I’ve seen these snakes wild in Malaysia – I hadn’t expected to see one on the Bubble Park road in Limassol. Goobie was in heaven. He loves snakes.

I’d expected the Reptile Jungle to just house a small collection of snakes from Cyprus. It did – there were blunt-nosed vipers, a Montpellier snake and a coin snake. But there was SO much more!

I walked past this Alligator snapping turtle thinking it was a rock:

This small caiman watched us intently as we walked past:

I spent ages trying to spot this incredible Panther chameleon when it was hidden on its multicoloured branch. A few years ago, I’d learnt that the Mediterranean chameleons found in Cyprus can change to green, yellow or brown/grey – but not pink. I discovered this after setting up an experiment with a visiting baby chameleon and a piece of pink card. The panther chameleon can change through the whole spectrum of colours. Amazing!

We looked at countless varieties of snakes – corn snakes, milk snakes, rattle snakes, vipers, constrictors, a young anaconda. Red snakes, brown snakes, white snakes, orange snakes, stripy ones, spotted ones. The prize for the fiercest-looking snake went to the extremely dangerous African Gaboon viper.

I met Yiannis, the owner of the Reptile Jungle. He’d been collecting reptiles for 30 years and had a huge collection upstairs, out of the public eye. He explained that he often swaps round the reptiles so that people see different things each time they visit.

For €5 euros you can hold a reptile. Goobie held this large chameleon:

Next was the thing we were both looking forward to – meeting the albino Burmese python. I’ve had a fondness for these since holding one in the Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpa. The one in the Reptile Jungle was Goobie’s age (7) and was really heavy! And thankfully a gentle giant. He made Goobie’s day.

Finally, the time had arrived that I’d been dreading – Spider Time!! There are a number of impressive tarantulas at the Reptile Jungle. One habitat contained a dead-looking tarantula and a severed leg. Yiannis explained that there hadn’t been a spider massacre – spiders shed skins as they grow, like snakes. I was looking at the skin.

I couldn’t put things off any longer. Yiannis took out a Chilean rose tarantula and put it on my hand.

‘Argh! Is it going to bite?!’ I wailed. Yiannis assured me it was gentle.

It just sat there and I started to relax. It felt a bit like holding a hamster – with a few extra legs.

And then it moved.

‘Argh! It moved! I said intelligently.

I could feel the tiny pricks of its claws (do they even have claws or was that my imagination?) as it moved across my hand. But after a while, I relaxed again and began to appreciate its unique beauty. It stopped being scary and started to seem a bit … cute? Sorry Yiannis.

Whatever, I was well chuffed with myself. Goobie had been totally uninterested. So much for good examples.

But Yiannis had a surprise in store. He disappeared upstairs and came back a few moments later and put this in my hand:

I’ve held scorpions before so this didn’t freak me out as much as the tarantula. But its stinger did look extremely stingy . . .

We loved our morning at the Reptile Jungle. Yiannis is passionate about his animals and the animals seemed happy –  many curious about us and coming up to say hello.

If you love reptiles or even just fancy a weird adrenaline rush like I did, then this is the place for you.