The Cat's Hole is a wild ride made all the more fun by the knowledge that if you fluff it

The Cat's Hole is a wild ride, made all the more fun by the knowledge that if you fluff it the canoe may well capsize.Once past Stanley, the landscape around the river opens out into farmland and you cruise slowly down to Perth, where the river becomes tidal. Most people stop here but to my mind the estuarine stretch (another two days) between here and the firth is one of the most magical - though you have to time it right to make sure you paddle with, not against, the tide.After a while the river broadens out to well over a mile across. You camp another night in the forest on the southern shore, then, the next morning, do the final leg down to Dundee The waters become choppy. Seals pop up next to you, often following for a mile or two before swimming away.Canoeing the Tay is a great way to see nature. Because you make little sound, you often surprise creatures as you come around a bend in the river Salmon leap over your bow.

And you experience the landscape from a different perspective, following the water between the folds and spurs of the hills, the forests falling down to meet you, around you the scent of clean water and growing things.Croft-na-Caber, Kenmore, Loch Tay, Perthshire PH15 2HW; Tel: 01887 830 588, Fax: 01887 830 649. FACT FILESeasonOpen all year.AccommodationCroft-na-Caber is a large Victorian lodge. Choose between full board (pounds 40 per person a night), B&B (pounds 20), or self-catering chalets (pounds 50-60 for a four to six-bed chalet). Camping by the river bank (take your own equipment) is cheaper.TariffsHalf day pounds 26 per person (pounds 18 for children); full day pounds 38; two-day river trip pounds 64. Prices include equipment and tuition but not food or accommodation. Canoe and kayak hire costs pounds 8 an hour, pounds 16 for three hours, or pounds 25 a day.ChildrenMinimum age 12 years.SafetyAll guides are trained in river rescue.

Helmets and buoyancy aids are compulsory.InsuranceClients should arrange their own personal accident insuranceBookingsTelephone to make a reservation and get a booking form, which should be returned with a 20 per cent deposit within seven days of the booking date. Late bookings will be accepted if space permits.AccessCroft-na-Caber is just out of Kenmore village, on the south shore road of Loch Tay. Kenmore is six miles from Aberfeldy on the A827/A9 junction, two hours north of Edinburgh.. If You ever wanted to know what a real press trip was like I'm now going to spill the beans, because I've just been on one (to the Seychelles).

I'll grant that a trip to a beach paradise in the Indian Ocean might not seem like a particularly tough assignment, though whether paradise will really involve being cooped up with five journalists and a PR rep for a week is slightly doubtful. This is, basically, what press trips are all about: PR reps trying to sell a place to journalists by showing them as many good things about that place in as short a time as possible.Naturally, the good things about a country from a touristic point of view tend to involve aperetifs at sunset, fine wines, fresh lobster, exclusive hotels, luxury swimming pools etc. They would not normally involve the soothing attention of the rep and thrill of being on a blind date with strangers (the other journalists) in an exotic climate.In theory journalists are supposed to inspect what is on offer with the spirit of journalistic inquiry. They lug their notepads around, assessing the sandiness of the beaches, the picturesque qualities of the palm trees, the tallness of the Pina Coladas and wearily jot down the details as they go.In case you were wondering whether they insist on wearing trilbys and dirty raincoats as they sip their cocktails on the beach, however, the answer is no. Personally I was wearing a silly sombrero and embroidered sandals for most of this particular trip, and my luggage comprised more sun tan lotion and insect repellent than pens and notepads.Not that this need have interfered with my spirit of journalistic inquiry. In fact, being able to talk with besuited hotel executives while in my beachwear struck me as highly liberating.What was much more worrying of course was the sinister possibility that the PR representative was giving me free lobster, not merely to enable me to assess the qualities of, say, Seychellois lobster as opposed to Mauritian lobster, but, in fact, to hoodwink me into putting into print the idea that lobsters grow on trees in the Seychelles.Or even worse (assuming that journalists are not really that naive), to tempt me into writing nice things about the Seychelles with the subliminal threat that my lobster supply would be withdrawn unless I did so.Journalists acceptingdodgy brown envelopes in exchange for good reports? Nice, cosy relationships between the trade and the press at the expense of ordinary holiday consumers? The unspoken promise of future trips if everything works out "nicely" with the write-up? As far as my trip to the Seychelles went, the evidence was inconclusive.

I observed the curious phenomenon of people from trade magazines taking notes and conducting serious interviews while in their swimsuits They did not look like fat cats. I personally found it hard to dispute that the Seychelles seemed a nice place to spend a holiday, and found it odd that the Seychelles Tourist Board were so anxious to prove this obvious fact.Far from wallowing in the hospitality though, we were oppressed by the obligation of having to meet so many hoteliers and eat so many banquets in so short a space of time. We were also distracted by our own fascinating group dynamics, to the point where the Seychelles themselves became something of a sideline.Perhaps more interestingly though, conversations - as always in the travel trade - revolved around the "product". We were presented with the islands of the Seychelles as a commodity to be consumed by tourists. The fact that this was actually a country with real people living in it was almost overlooked.Instead of free lobster, what would have seduced me would have been the chance to blunder around the country on my own, running into the local bureaucracy, having altercations with town drunks, standing up on crowded buses (if there had been any crowded buses on the Seychelles).I realise that there are worse jobs in life than eating banquets in the Seychelles and I'm not going to fall in with those irritating people who complain about having to do them But I don't think press trips are going to corrupt me.. The dog that arrived at the restaurant with Amy Jenkins appeared to be a hybrid of an aardvark and a greyhound.

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