About the Author

About the Author

Makareta (Margaret) here...Queensland mum, nana to four cheeky grandkids, and a woman who’s learned that life doesn’t come with a tidy instruction manual.

In 2023 I laced up a pair of boots that definitely weren’t HOKAs, slung a 35-litre backpack over my shoulders, and walked the 800-kilometre Camino de Santiago across northern Spain. I wasn’t chasing some glossy “eat-pray-love” moment. I was carrying the sudden, gut-wrenching loss of my husband to alcoholism, the man I built a home with in Kilcoy, renovated walls alongside, and married under fairy lights in a quiet backyard ceremony when COVID kept the world small. Grief doesn’t pack light, and neither did I. The Camino became my way of moving forward when standing still felt impossible: blisters, sarcasm, fleeting friendships, and a lot of honest, messy truth along the way.

Walk in My Shoes is the unfiltered story of that pilgrimage; raw, sarcastic, and straight from the heart. No sugar-coated epiphanies, just the real grit of a woman who kept putting one foot in front of the other.

I’ve also written two companion journals for fellow travellers and dreamers:

• A Pilgrim’s Journal – a day-by-day prompt book with space for your own Camino reflections, sketches, and moments of “why did I sign up for this?”
• A Bucket Tick Journal: Tasmania – a fun, practical guide to ticking off Tassie’s wild beauty, from hiking Cradle Mountain to devouring oysters on Bruny Island, complete with checklists, maps, and my own stories.

When I’m not writing or plotting the next adventure, you’ll find me in Queensland, surrounded by my three amazing adult children and four grandchildren who keep me laughing, grounded, and forever young at heart. Wide skies, gum trees, and the occasional possum raid on the compost bin complete the picture.

Drop by the website, say g’day, or share your own trail tales on our Facebook Community  —I’m always up for a yarn about sore feet, stubborn hope, or why Aussie wildlife has it in for us. Buen Camino, mates.