Wadi Rum – one of Jordan’s most famous destinations. The place where Lawrence of Arabia fought the Ottomans. Where camels roam beneath soaring rock faces, painted red by magnificent sunsets. And the place where Herc had his first camel ride, Goobie fell off a sand dune and I danced under the stars in a Bedouin camp. Unforgettable.

We were on the final leg of our week-long trip to Jordan. A trip that saw us having mud baths at the Dead Sea, exploring the breathtaking city of Petra and snorkelling in the Red Sea. From the Red Sea, we drove for an hour east to Wadi Rum.

I always imagined Wadi Rum as a remote wilderness, miles from anywhere. In reality it was really easy to get to. You take a well-signposted turning off the Desert Highway and it’s just 15km down the road. As far as the eye can see are countless electricity pylons. If I’d visited it in Lawrence of Arabia’s time in World War One, I’m sure it would have felt a lot more remote.

As we drove towards Wadi Rum, we drove alongside something that had Goobie bouncing in his seat with excitement:

Shortly afterwards, we went over a railway crossing. The track stretched into the distance, utterly empty.

‘I doubt there’d actually be a steam train out here, Goobie,’ I said. ‘But perhaps the line is used for freight.’

We rounded a corner and saw this. We thought we were dreaming.

An actual steam train in the desert! And there behind it, coaches and trucks for hauling freight. Next to it was a little station. We pulled over to take a closer look.

Goobie dubbed the train the Wadi Rum Express – it’s actually called the Al Hijaz Steam Train. This beauty runs on the Hejaz railway, built by the Ottomans at the turn of the twentieth century to take pilgrims from Damascus in Syria to Medina and Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The Ottoman trains were repeatedly ambushed by T. E. Lawrence’s forces during the Arab Revolt in World War One and there is a small museum in the station showcasing its history. You can even book onto a Train Experience, taking a ride on the train and watching a mock battle of the Arab Revolt. Of course we didn’t know about that then. If we go back, that will be at the top of our itinerary.

A day later, as we drove away from Wadi Rum, we saw that the train was actually working! We jumped out of the car and ran up for a closer look. The engine driver invited Goobie into the cab for a look around. It was one of the highlights of his trip.

We continued on and soon reached the Wadi Rum Visitor Centre, where you can organise a guide, use the loo and do souvenir shopping. We drove past it to Wadi Rum village, the only village in the Wadi Rum Protected Area. Most of the villagers are from one of seven Bedouin tribes, settling in the village permanently and taking responsibility for the tourism. There’s a Rum Tourism Cooperative that ensures everyone gets a fair share of the business. It was here where we met up with our guide, Mahdi.

We had booked a one-night stay at Candles Bedouin Camp in the heart of Wadi Rum. There are about a gazillion Bedouin camps to choose from, all with amazing ratings on Trip Advisor. We chose Candles because it had one of the best ratings – and I liked the name.

The camp you book with will offer extra activities to tag onto your stay, such as camel-riding, a half-day jeep safari, sandboarding etc. We started our Wadi Rum adventure with a camel ride out of Wadi Rum village and into the desert proper.

There were no donkeys this time to put Herc on, so he rode with me, still in the sling so that I didn’t need to worry about holding onto him if the animal spooked. The side-to-side rocking of the camel soon put him to sleep.

Goobie and I noticed that the Bedouin rode their camels differently to how we were riding them. If you sit on them like a horse, with legs either side, your inner thighs start to ache after a while. Instead, the Bedouin sat on them like you would a chair, legs in front, one crossed over the other around the pommel you hold on to. We copied them – it was a lot more comfortable.

As Wadi Rum village receded into the distance, it was like entering a different world. Or stepping onto a movie set. I wasn’t surprised to learn that not only had Peter O’Toole’s Lawrence of Arabia been filmed here, but Matt Damon’s The Martian too. The desert stretched as far as the eye could see, punctuated by magnificent rocky mountains that shot hundreds of feet into the air. Dwarfed by their size, tiny jeeps and camel trains wound around them, taking tourists to all best sights Wadi Rum had to offer.

Our camel ride ended at a camel station beneath an oasis on the side of a hill. It was here that we started our jeep safari, riding in the back of an open-top jeep. It shot off across the desert, bouncing over the sand, a surprisingly cool wind in our faces. I wouldn’t have wanted to visit here any later in the year as I imagine it would have got pretty chilly.

We stopped at a humongous sand dune and our guide pointed up.

‘You can eat your lunch up there,’ he said, handing us packed lunches that came with the tour.

So up we slowly trudged, watching sandboarders flying down past us. Climbing sand dunes is harder work than it looks, particularly when you are carrying a 10kg baby. My toes clawed into the warm, fine sand, trying to find purchase as I climbed up. A group of fellow Brits went past us, one carrying a large bottle of gin, the others cans of tonic.

‘For the top!’ A guy laughed back at us. I felt a flash of patriotic pride. Typical Brit, thinking about the booze. I wish I’d had the same idea.

Finally we reached the top. The view alone made it worth the effort. As I looked across a surreal sea of oranges, browns and reds, I was struck by a sense of unreality. Is this actually real? I couldn’t pin it down in my head.

We sat down for lunch and, while we were eating, Goobie started to play a game with himself – one that proved once again how utterly insane seven-year-olds are. He started to pretend he was about to fall off the sand dune, clinging onto the steep side for dear life.

‘Argghhhh!! I’m falling!!!’ his voice reverberating around the Martian landscape.

He got looks. Odd boy, I’m sure everyone thought. But they walked politely past.

And then he did fall off the sand dune.

‘Arghhhh!! I’m falling!!!!’ His voice grew fainter as he rolled arse-over-tit downhill.

I sighed.

Odd boy.

We slowly followed him down, stopping to allow Herc to play in the sand. He loved the sand, picking up handfuls of it and watching it seep between his fingers.

From the sand dune, our jeep safari took us to the Khazali canyon in Jabal Khazali, one of the rocky mountains. The canyon is a small crack in the rock, but inside are ancient Nabatean and Islamic carvings. We walked to the end of a canyon, where a pool for collecting rain water had been cut into the rock.

The Nabateans were an ancient tribe around from the 4^th century BC to the 2^nd century AD. Their capital was Petra but you can find traces of their civilization elsewhere. Apparently, just outside Wadi Rum village are the ruins of a Nabatean temple.

We climbed back into the jeep and were driven on, through Wadi Rum, to two natural rock bridges. The aptly-named Little Bridge we looked at from the jeep. Further on we reached a far bigger bridge called Um Froth Rock Bridge, 15 metres high. Goobie and Matt scrambled up the rocks to reach it, while Herc and I stayed on the ground drinking sweet Bedouin tea. There’s a large tent at this site where you can rest and buy souvenirs.

I’m pleased I didn’t take Goobie up to Um Froth Rock Bridge. I’m not scared of heights but I do get the Mummy Wobbles – a fear of Goobie falling. Matt said it was pretty vertiginous and they didn’t actually manage to get onto the bridge as they were worried about the height and its narrow width.

By the time Matt and Goobie reached the bottom, the sun was sinking lower in the sky and our guide told us it was time to drive to the spot that offered the best sunset.

He drove for ten minutes around more rocky mountains and stopped on the edge of a plain. We sat on huge rocks and looked out across the desert, sipping hot tea which our guide had brewed for us. The shadows grew longer, as the sun set behind distant mountains, sending out fingers of deep red light, as if waving goodbye.

It was stunning.

The minute the sun disappeared behind the mountains, it started to get quite chilly in Wadi Rum. We hopped back into the jeep and our guide took us to where we were spending the night – Candles Bedouin Camp.

Given how many Bedouin camps there are in Wadi Rum, I expected the place to seem filled with them. But that wasn’t the case. On our jeep safari we saw little camps dotted here and there, but they were so dwarfed by the mountains that you could quite easily miss them. Candles sat nestled into one of the massive rocky peaks, two rows of sleeping tents and a bigger dining tent behind them.

The tents at Candles were unlike any I’ve stayed in before. Ours was massive! It had two big bedrooms – one with a double bed, one with four singles. Between the bedrooms was a bathroom. The Bedouin version of glamping.

After getting settled and putting on some warmer clothes, we headed to the dining tent for dinner. Once all the guests were there, we were taken outside to watch them digging up a joint of meat that had been cooked in an underground oven. I’m a veggie but it smelled delicious.

We queued up in the dining tent and were given various traditional Bedouin dishes. I’m not certain what they all were but my veggie dinner was delicious. We ate on cushions with our fellow travellers.

Once we’d all finished, we were invited to sit around the campfire outside. Large blankets were handed out to keep us warm and people came round pouring out hot drinks. Then our bedouin hosts started playing traditional music on drums and stringed instruments. We listened to the music, warm and cosy, while we looked at the magnificent night sky. Up there was Veda, the star that had shone down on us during Petra By Night and when we were in Ayia Napa the previous month. It was magical. I hope Goobie remembers this moment from his childhood when he’s older.

As the music continued, Mahdi and a friend started to dance around the fire. Soon we were invited to join them. I never turn down the opportunity to dance and jumped up to join in the fun. We held hands in a big circle, hopping and spinning around the crackling flames.

When I sat down, I saw that Goobie and Herc had been lulled to sleep by their full tummies, the music and the warmth of the fire. We reluctantly left the campfire and returned to our tent to put them to bed.

Deserts are cold places at night. Our tent and our bed was comfy but I struggled to stay warm. We slept under heavy blankets and I still kept waking up cold. If you visit off-peak, take thick pjs and bed socks. And if you feel the cold like I do, ask Mahdi for an extra blanket.

When we stepped out of the tent the next day, the soft morning light bathed Wadi Rum in a bluish haze. I loved how it looked different at different times of the day. We had breakfast in the dining tent and soon we were being driven back to Wadi Rum village. Back to our rental car where we would drive five hours along the Desert Highway to Amman and the plane that would take us home to Cyprus.

Our experience in Wadi Rum was amazing. Our time in Jordan utterly unforgettable. The trip reminded me of our back-packing days before children, when things were rougher, wilder, freer. Except now our travels are richer because we get to share them with Goobie and Herc. Get to see the world through their eyes.

I wouldn’t want it any other way.