The Walk

In the movie The Way, Martin Sheen’s character undertakes a 500-mile walk across northern Spain in memory of his lost son. The journey on the Camino de Santiago (the way of St. James) initially seems arduous and perilous, but it turns out to be an exhilarating adventure that liberates Sheen and other trekkers from the confinements of their everyday lives. It inspired me to make my own mini-pilgrimage — one that would take a few hours rather than weeks.

I mapped out my own camino de la playa from Hendry’s Beach to Goleta Beach, a six-mile stretch of shoreline that seems far removed from the nearby urban bustle. I consulted the bus schedules and tide tables. The Number 5 bus would drop me off at the Hendry’s (Arroyo Burro) parking lot, and the Number 11 would take me back to town from the airport road near Goleta Beach. I chose an afternoon when the tide was very low.

The ocean takes on many different colors over the course of the year. On this clear winter day, it was a brilliant cobalt blue, sprinkled with dabs of bronze where kelp broke the surface. Ahead of me, a wide carpet of firm, wet sand stretched into the distance. There have been no storms powerful enough to scour the sand away from the rocky shore.