A dedicated lifelong walker, Sandra worked in Melbourne, Australia, as an archivist and historian after doing a PhD on the history of national parks in her home state of Victoria. In her spare time she wrote a regular column about bushwalking (hiking) in Melbourne's leading daily newspaper, and many articles and books on walking and national parks in south-eastern Australia (1977-89). With her husband Hal, Sandra moved to Scotland in 1989, and they live beside Loch Ness. In recent years she has written guidebooks for Lonely Planet (Italy, Ireland, France, Scotland, Australia, 1998-2007), Rucksack Readers (England, Ireland and Scotland) and Sunflower Books (Croatia and Poland-Slovakia, 2006).