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My brother used to live over the road from me and often kept ducks. Once he took his family to Greece on holiday and it fell to me to tend them, ie let them out of their shed in the mornings, feed them twice a day and usher them into the shed in the evenings. I enjoyed doing this, finding them friendly and quite intelligent The evening before brothers return I was a little late in arriving to put them away and found that foxes had found them to be delicious, too. Our Kid was very understanding, relieved almost, as he'd grown sick of duck eggs............. Ian

As a predominant river angler, I'll go through what I do to minimise gear weight. (Bear in mind im a game fishing river angler, so some thing may not apply). I travel literally miles and miles on my river so minimal gear is absolutely necessary. First of all, rods and reels. Bring a rod suited to the river you are fishing and your chosen tactics, for example, you dont need a 12ft carp rod for a 20ft wide river, you can take a few foot off that easy. As for reels, load line suited to the river your fishing, forget a spare spool, its not required if you do your homework. Clothing. Do you need waders? Wear them instead of spare clothes if you really need them. If your river and swim(s) is/are shallow, its easy to take shoes off if absolutely necessary. Buy a nice comfortable jacket with zip pockets, you can thank me later. Waterproof if you need it. My jacket of choice for the colder months is a Regatta storm jacket that cost about £60. Lots of pockets, very, very warm, comfortable, and great against the elements. If your stalking, I wear a thin ngt camo style jacket over my Regatta, it's easy to remove if I need to. If your not stalking, don't bother. If you are stalking, dont forget your polarised goggles either, on a lanyard. If not stalking, or the weather/water conditions arnt good enough, dont bother with these either. Tackle. For tackle I like to bring ONE tackle box as small as possible with all my gear in it, hooks, swivels weights. I keep this in my jacket pocket. If bringing lures, again, minimise, and fit into a small single tackle box. Essential gear. Phone, torch, bandage, water. To minimze the water you carry, you can purchase water purifying tablets. Ive used these when doing over 10 mile walks up the river for a weekend as water is heavy (1ltr =1KG), these have been a great addition, and even fit in my tackle box. You will also need an empty bottle for purifying. Phone for emergency purposes, and small led torch, don't rely on your phones torch, if your battery dies your screwed, which brings me on to my next bit of kit, a portable battery pack, again for emergency only as a backup for your phone, don't be tempted to use the charge for playing games if your waiting on a bite. Ive been caught in a flash flood and having a way to call for help may very well save your life one day. A small pocket knife is a welcome addition too, for numerous reason. As for food, bring any cold foods from the super market that will give you pleanty of carbs and protein, pastries and heavy meats are good for this. I you want hot meals, then ration packs and water activated ration heaters are really light and weight added is minimal. Bait. Go minimal, decide what your are fishing for, for how long, and make any mixes or baits you need to at home. A common problem people have,(we all do it) is bring far too much bait to use in a single single session. Plan for this, and even bring too much bait for a day and lig how much you actually use and make changes accordingly. For me on the river it's easy, a sinlgle pot of worms does me for 2/3 days alone. Sent from my HUAWEI G6-L11 using Tapatalk