Bear Grylls once got stuck in quicksand and used genius method to escape

If there's a bloke who can worm his way out of a sticky situation, it's got to be Bear Grylls.

He miraculously survived wading through a jungle river that was in 'full flood' and had a host of near-misses on his expedition up Mount Everest with Spencer Matthews, so we know he's more than capable.

But if you need some proof of his prowess in life-or-death situations, this footage will certainly do the trick:

It goes without saying, but don't try this stuff at home - or if you somehow find yourself in the middle of the Sahara Desert.

However, Grylls did hope that putting himself through the ordeal of submerging himself in quicksand might be beneficial if someone accidentally got stuck in it themselves.

It's a fear we've all had before I'm sure - even though you probably live in a concrete jungle and won't ever come into contact with the lethal liquefied mixture of sand and water.

But hey, you never know.

While filming his legendary Man vs. Wild series in the sun-scorched desert in North Africa, Grylls decided to put himself in harms way so that he could demonstrate his genius way of escaping.

The Brit adventurer, 50, explained that even though it might be extremely difficult, the most important thing you can do in this kind of situation is to stay calm and conserve your energy.

"Tiny desert springs bubble to the surface - but don't be fooled, this could be lethal quicksand which has been known to swallow vehicles of people whole," he told viewers. "Fall into this and you'll be in big trouble.

Bear Grylls bravely submerged himself in quicksand to demonstrate how to escape from it (Discovery)

"I'm gonna show you how to get out of it alive," the survivalist said.

Grylls explained that the more you struggle against the quicksand, the more 'it pulls you in'.

"You suddenly realise that it's not just this crust of sand that you thought, but actually it's all of that clay and water," he explained. "And each time you try and pull your leg up, the suction just pulls it back in.

"That's why these things are so dangerous."

Grylls said that contrary to popular belief, people don't die when they when they become stuck in quicksand because it 'swallowed' them, but rather because they simply cannot escape from it.

The other 'killer' he warned people to be wary of is the scorching sun beating down - as it will quickly leave you fatigued.

While submerged in the quicksand up to the upper part of his stomach, Grylls then decided he'd gone deep enough.

He told the camera: "Quicksand is twice as dense as your body, so in theory, it should be impossible to drown. But if you panic, you just get sucked in further and you won't have a hope of getting out.

"It's really tempting to just to reach out and grab a hand but actually in many ways that's the last thing you want to do.

The survivalist showed how he 'monkey crawled' out of the thick mixture of sand and water (Discovery)

"The danger is you could then pull somebody else into the same situation you're in," he added.

"Or, you could dislocate your shoulder.

"Getting out of here is a battle. So, the way to get out of this is to try and pull your legs up towards the surface."

He reminded people to 'keep calm' and not to 'fight' the pull of the quicksand, as it would just make the ordeal worse.

"So, let's try and control your breathing and try and manoeuvre your chest onto the surface," the TV star continued.

"Try and get a leg out...and then just monkey crawl your way out."

Grylls obviously made it look easy, but even he admitted he had struggled with the toll escaping had taken on him.

Joking that he felt like he 'had lead boots on' due to the thick clay coating his clothing, he then instructed viewers to strip off immediately to avoid some really severe chafing.

"If you try walking far like this you're just gonna get massive rubbing all the way under your armpits and inside your legs and you'll be rubbed red raw in half an hour," Grylls explained. "So strip off try and get as much the grit of you as you can.

"If you don't, the grit in your armpits and groin will make your skin erupt into horrible infections and boils.

"And if sand clogs up your sweat glands you could end up with painful prickly heat rash which is unbearably itchy."

But as soon as that's all sorted, you need to get your kit back on pronto so that the 'sun doesn't sear your flesh'.

Got all that? Great.