I like your advice about monopods. I have found the following tips useful:
– You can firm up a monopod by jamming it up against a fence;
– A monopod gives you a sense of security in a dodgy location – it would be a useful defender;
– A right angle viewer makes one more versatile – you can more easily get a lower viewpoint with one;
– I fitted mine with a ball head and found I could then point my camera in all sorts of awkward angles when taking shots of flowers. This gave me much better results than trying to shoot hand-held. A tri-pod would have been better but heavier to carry and much slower to set up;
– A monopod is much quicker to set up than a tripod;
– A monopod is easy to use at a crowded tourist site, where a tripod would be a trip-hazard;
– You only need a simple head for a monopod, saving weight and cost. There is no need to use a quick-release head, which would be a definite asset on a tripod;
– Monopods are more acceptable to tourist site security staff than tripods.

Sorry to disappoint you, as I presume you’re a lefty!

Tony Page