There is an upside to stress, but sometimes it get’s lost in our modern society. Let me share a short tale of when stress saved our lives.

We were paddling along an isolated stretch of the Gregory River. To say it’s isolated is perhaps an understatement. It’s about six hours of red dirt north of Mount Isa, 30 clicks from the closest pub, and probably a kilometre and a half from the last campsite. It’s an utterly beautiful oasis in red dirt country and we spent a month by the river just doing life.

As we were paddling, a little pied cormorant dived deep into the river…. but we never saw him come up again.

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We were so focused on spotting the little cormorant that we didn’t see the croc till it was too late. Laura and I were on our stand-up paddle boards, talking and laughing about what may have become of the little bird. When, out the corner of my eye, not 4 foot from my paddle board, I saw a massive crocodile sprawled over of a gumtree half submerged in the water.

It’s funny how things go. I physically felt the surge of adrenaline through my body. Instantly, my heart rate ramped up, my muscles tightened, and my focus became laser sharp. I took a deep breath, kept paddling slowly and said to my 11 year old daughter, “I need you stay calm, but if you look to the right, there’s a really big croc on that log.”

She was incredible. Despite her shaking legs and obvious panic, she kept paddling. The crocodile didn’t move an inch. Didn’t even blink, and trust me, I was watching. Because he was longer than my paddle board and a few feet higher than us. If he moved at all, there was a good chance he would have knocked us off our boards. Then who knows what would have happened.

In the end, it was the stress response that saved us and kept us alert and moving. Having that laser focus and burst of energy allowed me regroup and talk Laura through it. So, while stress seems to get a bad wrap in modern society, there is an upside to stress and it can be a pretty handy response in life threatening situations.