Steve Backshall feared he would never see his son grow up when he nearly died in a kayak accident.
The ‘Expedition’ star – whose latest series sees him joined by a team of adventurers as they head to previously unexplored locations – found himself stuck for five minutes under glacial water on an uncharted river in Bhutan, leaving him terrified and scared he was going to drown.
He told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "I’d enough time to understand that I had no strength left and was drowning.
"I realised it was how it ends, how I was going to die. I had time to think through the impact, that I would never get to see my baby son grow up."
Steve, 46, and his Olympic rower wife Helen Glover, 33, welcomed their son Logan into the world in July last year, and his horrific river experience came just months after the youngster’s birth.
He admitted the team were worried the rapids were too much for them to tackle, and their fears were validated when his kayak flipped over as he paddled over a waterfall and got caught by a whirlpool.
He added: "We came to rapids at the end of the day and there was concern from everyone that it might be a step too far, but getting out was almost impossible because we were in a high-sided canyon, so we chanced it and ran the rapid. It was a step too far. Way too far."
Thankfully, Sal Montgomery – a top class white water kayaker – was part of the team, and he managed to move upstream and throw out a rope to pull Steve to safety.
He said: "There will always be a little part of me that owes everything to Sal."
Steve Backshall almost drowned in kayak accident
