Fancy a weekend activity break, just a little off the beaten track? We sent Sarah Tucker to paddle her own canoe - through the Canadian wilderness.

Wind chill factor of minus 10. Head winds vicious and relentless. Frozen fingers sticky with cold - clinging to the oars of a 50lb kayak on an unseasonally cold Thanksgiving weekend on a lake, in the middle of one of the oldest, most stunning and most challenging Provincial parks in Canada. Welcome to the wilderness experience.

If Steve Redgrave could do it, then so could I.

No, not win a gold in the next Olympics, but learn to paddle my own canoe - literally and metaphorically. Ideally in a location as evocative and challenging and hopefully as warm as Sydney - but closer to home, minus the crowds, media attention and formidable competition.

Inspired by Redgrave's efforts, I wanted to learn to kayak, camping under the stars, with wild animals, bears, wolves, moose, the lot. I wanted to learn how to survive under wilderness conditions.

There are hundreds of tour operators offering outward bound weekends in the wild - both for corporate team building sessions and for individuals in search of an adrenalin rush, but few offer the degree of tuition, variety and fun Call of the Wild includes in their itineraries.

"You're a soft adventurer at the moment", Robin Banerjee, MD of Call of the Wild, said to me after I explained what I wanted from my weekend.

"Soft adventurers are the sort of people who climb Kilimanjaro but expect someone else to carry their luggage for them. Well, I don't carry your luggage on the trips we organise. Other companies do that. You carry your own. And you carry your own canoe single handedly between lakes when you need to. You do your own cooking, pitch your own tent, light your own fire in all conditions - rain or shine. I'm here to give you the guidance and the confidence to enable you to do it for yourself. To survive and smile through it".

Call of the Wild operates week long and weekend tours in some of the most spectacular national and provincial parks in Ontario. Don't be misled by the word 'park'. Parks in Canada are not of the neat rose bed, small lake and asphalt path variety. Canadian parkland is untamed wilderness - largely accessible only by foot, by canoe or on horseback. Some of these parks are populated by more grizzly, black and brown bear per square mile than anywhere else on the planet.

I asked Robin why there are no roads built through some of these bear infested parks to ensure visitors could appreciate the wildlife in relative safety. He replied matter of factly the roads this would disrupt the environment and if visitors wanted to see the bears, and were accidently eaten, so be it. He assured me as long as visitors were well prepared and had a good guide with them, they would more or less be safe, and anyway, the bears are more scared of us than we are of them. Yeh, right.

The company sends you a list of the clothes and accessories you should take for the weekend (incredibly no more than 15 items, and that includes sleeping bag), and more importantly, the things you should leave at home. I had my quota of clothes and toiletries, and was able to travel with only hand luggage on my flight.

"We never recommend jeans", Robin explained. "Always bring a hat, light coloured, lots of socks which can also double as dirty knicker holders. No perfume or aftershave - no one cares what you smell like in the wild, and it also attracts the mosquitoes. Leave the rings and expensive jewellery at home. Your fingers will shrink in the cold, and they'll fall off you when you're paddling against the head winds. Do bring good walking shoes, sunglasses, a hat or bandanna, mosquito repellant and a really really good sleeping bag that can deal with sub zero temperatures just in case. And a good light rucksack to carry it all in. A mirror if you must. You have to carry the whole lot on your back - so think light'.

Before I was allowed to set foot in my canoe Robin gave me a focused brief on do's and don'ts of wilderness and canoe ettiquette. I was told what the canoes were made of kevlar (same material as bullet proof vests). Why the oars were the shape they were and why they were made of that sort of wood. Robin showed me how to hold the paddle (push from the shoulder), how to turn and twist it, what to do in certain weather conditions (no, not panic), and how to steer the boat and optimise your energy at all times (keep the paddle as close to the water as possible).

Despite the previous weekend of Indian summer - a respectable 15 degrees - my Thanksgiving weekend was chilly and wet and windy.

But the Canadian Fall colours were at their height and they lifted my spirits as I battled against the cold and head winds. I paddled from the side of one lake to the other, taking a brief break before carrying my heavy kayak on my shoulders onto the next lake. I paddled across three lakes each day, for between four to six hours. I occasionally stopped rowing to watch the geese flying south, flocked in their arrows of hundreds - cackling nosily like Christmas party goers.

Did the cold and wind dampen my enthusiasm? On the contrary, the conditions steeled my determination to succeed. Each night Robin showed me how to cherry pick camp sites protected from the elements. First chores were collecting and sawing wood from trees which had already been felled and tinder-dry. Robin showed me how to do this without getting blisters or cuts. Then it was pitching tents and exploring for the best kindling. Packing uneaten or food for the next night's camp into bags and hanging them from trees so that the bears couldn't get to it. 'Never leave food in your tent. The bears will smell it and try to get to it'. I ate every scrap I was given that weekend.

I learnt to rock climb like a trooper, stretching my legs into positions I thought impossible. My reward on reaching the top of each cliff was incredible views of the surrounding parkland. Robin told me about the plants and birds (pointing out the bald eagles 'there are more bald eagles in Canada than there are in the US - something every Canadian will tell you, and no American will) and which berries could be eaten and which should be left for the animals. I watched moose wallowing by the lakeside and found bear tracks, if not the bears. I called for wolves into the early hours. They called back, but alas it turned out only to be another encampment a few miles away who were also calling for wolves! The real wolves must have wondered what the hell was going on that weekend!

Each evening, we would tell ghost or long stories round the campfire. First night, Blair Witch Report-like, I got lost in the woods as I attempted to reach the designated make-shift toilet - a box with a hole in it, which was usually set up on a hill approached by a narrow path. Not the most wonderful of public conveniences, but during daylight hours - a seat with an unparalleled view of the Algonquin. If it wasn't for the bears, the Blair Witch, the call of the confused and silent wolves, I could have sat in my constipated state there for hours....

My last day of wilderness was spent in zero degree temperatures paddling hard back to base with a strong, unremitting head wind that dipped temperatures to minus 10c. As the wind slashed my face and my fingers froze to the oars I chanted 'Stephen Redgrave, Stephen Redgrave, Stephen Redgrave' and visualised the warm bed of the Westin Harbour Hotel I had stayed in two nights before and the warm bath I would spend hours soaking in at the Royal York hotel room that night. It helped.

All weekend I hadn't fallen in. I was glowing with health, felt stronger and exhilerated by what I had learnt, seen and done. Strangely, I didn't look tired. Filthy yes, tired no. I stank of garlic (the food is fabulous but garlicy) and wood fire smoke had soaked into every fibre of my clothes.

1. Following the leader
   Be nice to your guide! Robin was there to instruct us on how to survive and, most importantly enjoy our weekend in the wilderness. He was not there to be our servant. But when the going got tough, it was good to have a man at hand. They are good for something.
   
   
2. Be prepared
   Have proper equipment (backpacks or sleeping bags, etc). They can make a difference between life and death in a critical situation but, more likely, they make a difference between comfortable and being miserable on a "normal" trip.
   
   
3. On the right tracks
   Know how to read a map. Getting lost may make good Hollywood flicks, but it is the most terrifying thing most people could endure. Robin admitted he had never been "really" lost, since he always checks maps and watches his progress. 'We've rescued people that were lost (not part of our trips!) and they were VERY relieved to see us'.
   
   
4. Know how
   Know how to paddle a canoe. You will spend a lot of energy crossing a lake if you can't go in a straight line. Simple paddling skills will go a LONG way. Plus makes it much safer in strong winds and waves if you know how to paddle. Less likelihood of capsizing.
   
   Robin Banerjee is a qualified and licensed guide for the weekend. The fee included all food, provision of tents and most importantly instruction on how to kayak for the weekend. He instructed me in about an hour how to use the paddle, how to work with the canoe - put it in and take it out of the water, the best way to carry it during portages (ideally one person one canoe), and what to do if you got into trouble. By law, you must wear life jackets in the canoes, which can seem reasonable when the weather is lousy, but unreasonable when blisteringly hot. Wear them just in case. It could save your life.
   
   
5. Cool with the wild
   Know what to do about wild creatures. There are the obvious ones of bears and wolves. But the ones that have caused me the most grief are the cute little chipmunks (they chew your packs). Then there are the bloodsucking leeches. Getting one of them on you is enough to send a lumberjack screaming!
   
   
6. Cold in the wild
   Take lots of matches. And a saw. Maybe a hatchet. And know how to build a fire. A fire goes a huge way to making a camping trip an enjoyable experience, and you may have to build one in the rain - like we did!
   
   
7. Attitude is everything
   Have an adventurous attitude. Forget about rigid schedules and "city think". One priviso - if you are following a route, you still need to maintain some kind of schedule so you can make your next campsite before dark. But you should pick a route that isn't too hard and long, so you actually have some time to enjoy yourself. And never panic. If something bad does happen, stay calm. Panic only makes things worse.
   
   
8. Sleep tight.
   Invest in a decent sleeping bag (my one cost £80 from Field & Trek. Vango, Ultralite 1100M R) - it is thermal and will keep you warm up to minus 10. To get your sleep and keep warm at night when temperatures can reach sub zero even in the mild Autumn, is important. I slept with several layers on as well. Plus the beauty of this sleeping bag is that it also scrunches up into nothing, you don't have to fold it in any particular way - just stuff it in - and it won't take up most of your invaluable rucksack space.
   
   
9. Call of Nature
   The cold and being outdoors all the time makes you want to pee more. Sounds silly, but none other than the great explorer, Sir Ranulph Fiennes told me so. It is one of the many tips I learnt while reading his latest book BEYOND THE LIMITS published by Little Brown Publishing later this month, on the many lessons he has learnt on his far more intrepid and dangerous adventures. Don't drink a lot before going to bed, unless you want a 3 am wake up call of nature. Finding torch, clothes and then finding the loo in the dark with Blair Witch Report images in your head will not make the weekend a positively memorable one.
   
   
10. Get the right insurance
    Some holiday insurance precludes 'adventurous activities'. Call of the wild would be seen as 'soft adventure' rather than extreme. Sir Ranulph would probably think it tame - but check the small print on your policy before you go and contact your current insurers to advise them of the sort of things you will be doing.

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