Hunting for perfect but potentially non-existent support

I have a slightly odd request in that I'm trying to work out if what I'm looking for actually exists.

I'm trying to find a quality monopod that doubles as a walking stick. I use a cane in day to day life, and when I'm shooting that's no different. In a couple of months I'm actually heading to Antarctica so am searching for a good quality monopod that can cope with a canon 650d plus 100-400mm but that also will work as a walking stick - mostly because I can't carry two things when out and about and also my weight limits are going to be very strictly enforced by airlines.

I used this Hama Alpenpod http://www.hama.co.uk/004103/hama-alpenpod when I was in the Arctic earlier in the summer and it made it four days before collapsing - refused to let me adjust height and then the monopod attachment snapped off - not encouraging me to purchase another, although I think I pretty much took it to its limits weightwise... The lack of quick release was also a nightmare so something that will attach to a standard plate or has its own system would be ideal.

Everything else I've come across only has vertical handles and I'd need a horizontal one like the Hama. Something like the Gitzo wouldn't work for me at all - http://www.gitzo.com/monotrek-monopod

I've considered the Pedco Ultrapod II, but suggestions there are that if I attached it to my normal walking stick, it wouldn't cope with the weight that I'm going to put on it.

Anyone got thoughts or ideas? I'm pretty handy so if anyone has a suggestion of something I could rig together myself I'm all ears.