Gear

If I am carrying a few bits of camera gear plus tripod I use an old rucksack that has side compression straps, and a mesh pockets at the bottom on the sides. Tripod foot goes in the pocket, tripod gets strapped to the side, a quick release strap goes around the tripod head and secures the lot to the haul loop on the top of the rucksack. If I am carrying my macro kit, or larger lens then I use a proper photo rucksack (lowepro), that can have a daysack attached to the front. I had considered getting an old external frame pack, stripping the bag bit off, and lashing stuff to it, but banned from buying more bags.

I brought for £20 something (buy it now price) a Proline bag from E-Bay last year ish. It is well made & quite big inside. Maybe too big as I ended up getting a smaller rucksack style bag for when I am just out snapping. The proline would take some walking gear but as with all things it depends what you want take. The tripod attaches to the side, good for access to the stuff inside but unbalances the load. My other rucksack style bag has the 'pod attached down the middle of the bag, this gives a balanced load but means the 'pod gets in the way when unzipping the bag for the camera. My other bag (which I use most of the time) is a shoulder bag, this carries the 'pod strapped underneath. A pain when putting the bag down & not particularly easy to get the 'pod out of & re-strapped. I tend to carry the 'pod with camera attached, either over my shoulder or in the hand if I'm out with this particular bag. Probably not much help but each carrying position has pro's & cons. I ended up on my last (& 1st) wild camp with all the camping stuff in the camping rucksack & the camera shoulder bag sling style settling on the front of my hip. This worked quite well. The day sack/camera bag combo's I've looked at in the past didnt seem to have enough space to do both tasks.      

if its for *day* time, do you actually need to take a tripod?

Yes Parky you're right of course, but lets say there are no waterfalls or babbling brooks to take nice blurry photos of. In that instance, and you're not wishing to take shots at first light or well into sunset, why would you need a tripod?

ah ok, yes, I can that HDR would need one. 

Cheers for the replies. First and last light would be the times I'd take the tripod, as well as for the nice blurry babbling brooks etc. Looks like there's no simple answer, I tend to carry it with the camera attached once I'm where I want to shoot. I hadn't thought about carrying it on one side unbalancing me, makes sense though.

Always assuming that any new government doesn't do what it should and decree that practitioners of HDR photography should be hung upside down by their toes until they promise to stop.