The Red Sea – Jordan’s only coastline and Cyprus’s nearest tropical sea. Famous for its marine life and great snorkelling and diving opportunities, Goobie has an experience he will never forget.

We were on a week-long, whistle-stop trip through Jordan – six nights, six different hotels. We’d spent our first day floating in the Dead Sea, our second and third days exploring the ancient city of Petra. Day Four started in a Bedouin camp on the outskirts of Wadi Musa and was due to end in a Red Sea diving centre outside Aqaba.

Thanks to David Attenborough’s Blue Planet TV series, Goobie’s current passion is marine life. We’ve taken him snorkelling in the Mediterranean Sea around Cyprus but he was particularly excited about snorkelling in the Red Sea – it’s the world’s northernmost tropical sea and has an array of different marine life.

Jordan has two main highways – the ancient King’s Highway that runs through numerous towns and villages, and the quicker Desert Highway that connects the north and south of the country. We left Wadi Musa and drove south along the King’s Highway, heading for the main town on Jordan’s Red Sea coast – Aqaba.

The mountain scenery along the King’s Highway was spectacular, the sun shining through the clouds onto distant peaks.

After about an hour, the King’s Highway joined the Desert Highway and, as we carried on south, the rocky mountains began to flatten out into rolling sandy hills.

We looked out across the plains to distant rocky summits, dramatic and other-worldly. Lawrence of Arabia’s Wadi Rum was out there somewhere.

As we neared the coast, hills closed in again, a carpet of red sand sweeping up against their sides. It was a beautiful drive.

The Desert Highway wasn’t busy – mainly lorries on their way to the port in Aqaba. Road markings are poor, so drive slowly when around other traffic. Watch out for speed bumps and potholes that appear out of nowhere. We passed a few police checkpoints and were waved over at one of them. They just wanted to see our passport and were really friendly, so don’t worry if you get waved down. See my earlier post for tips on driving in Jordan.

Nearly three hours after leaving Wadi Musa, the Desert Highway started a gentle descent towards the coast. It snaked through a valley and then the hills opened up and in front of us was the Red Sea.

The Red Sea was a brilliant blue and across the water we could see Egypt. It felt weird to think that years ago, further down the coast on the Egyptian shore, Matt and I had snorkelled in Dahab. Could we have imagined then that we’d return to the Red Sea years later with two young children who called Cyprus, not the UK, their home?

We drove straight past Aqaba. We never got the chance to visit the town. Our big mistake with this trip was only booking a week. There was a lot that we didn’t have time to see or to savour. Aqaba was one of them.

All of the Red Sea diving centres are further down the coast. We were staying at Darna Divers Village, right opposite the sea. Here they take you out on snorkelling and diving expeditions and they also have rooms you can stay in.

The main focus for Darna Divers Village was clearly on the diving and not on running a hotel. Our room was shabby and water dripped from the aircon unit on to Matt’s bed at night. The restaurant was dire and we spotted other guests supplementing their paltry Darna breakfast with store-bought food. But Darna had a friendly atmosphere and we were only there for one night, so we didn’t mind its shortcomings. If you fancy somewhere posher, there are some nice-looking resorts five minutes further down the coast, such as the Mövenpick Tala Bay.

There are loads of places to dive along Jordan’s Red Sea coast. You can see shipwrecks, a sunken plane and there are also glass-bottomed boats to view the marine life. We headed for an area called the Japanese Gardens. I’d read that the Japanese Gardens was a great place for snorkelling because the coral is close to the surface of the sea and so you get some great sightings of marine life.

We chose Darna Diving Vilage because it was closest to the Japanese Gardens, so we hired our snorkelling gear and walked to where it was marked on the map. Where the heck was it? There were no signs, nothing to indicate we were in the right spot. We only had the one afternoon to enjoy the Red Sea, so there wasn’t time to waste searching for the right spot. We returned to Darna and paid for a guide to take us. Money well spent as he took us to the exact spot, marked by a nondescript buoy in the sea.

The plan was for Matt and I to take turns snorkelling while the other looked after Herc on the beach. I went in with Goobie first before Herc’s next feed.

The great thing about the Japanese Gardens is that you don’t have to swim out far before you get to where all the action is. Pretty soon, small hills of coral rose up in front of us.

And as we swam closer, we saw countless fish swimming around the coral. Oranges, reds, blacks, blues and stripes – fish of all shapes and colours.

I was excited to see a boxfish swimming along the sea bed, though the photo is rubbish. It was a windy day and the visibility was not as clear as it would have been on a calmer day.

Goobie was well out of his depth by this point. He is a strong swimmer but opted to wear a life jacket so that he could stay out for longer. He was mesmerised.

Below us, I spotted a parrotfish. I remember them well from snorkelling in Hawaii – their distinctive beak-like mouths and bright colours. This was the fish Goobie most wanted to see. I knew he’d be thrilled. If I’d been diving I would have got a better shot, but taking good photos from the surface of the sea was impossible.

And then there were the fish I hadn’t expected to see. Such as this cornetfish. It was fast, almost too fast for the camera.

Matt and I learned to dive in the Gili Islands, just off the coast of Bali. Nothing compares to our experiences diving in the Pacific, but there was one fish I’d never seen that I’d always wanted to – a lionfish. Our Red Sea guide patted me on the shoulder and pointed downwards. There, almost invisible on the sea bed, was a small lionfish. I couldn’t believe it!

I’d been snorkelling with Goobie for a while, so swam back past massive sea sponges and sea urchins to the shore to give Matt a turn. Soon afterwards, Goobie joined me. He’d been in the sea for an hour and was shivering cold.

While Matt enjoyed his snorkelling, I headed back to Darna to get Goobie showered and into warm clothes. He babbled excitedly all the way back about all the fish he’d seen. While we waited for Matt, he poured over a reference book Darna lent us, identifying all the fish – sergeant majors, butterfly fish, humbug damsels, boxfish and more.

Later, we headed out for dinner at the nearby Mövenpick Tala Bay resort. Goobie was asleep before we’d finished dessert, worn out by the excitement of the day.

And that was our fleeting experience of the Red Sea. My advice is to go for longer than we did – even just a couple of days. Ideally we would have had a few more snorkelling trips – and put Goobie in a wet suit so that he didn’t get too cold. Temperatures soar in the Red Sea during summer, but we were there just as the weather was cooling.

We headed off for Wadi Rum early the next morning. And as I saw the Red Sea disappear in the rear view mirror, I felt a pang of disappointment. This was the place Goobie most wanted to see and yet he’d got a mere hour in the water.

‘That was the best part of our holiday, Mummy,’ he said, from the back seat.

And a couple of weeks later, that one, amazing hour remains Goobie’s most special memory of our time in Jordan.