Kenton-on-Sea

Kenton-on-Sea sits between the Kariega and Bushman's Rivers on the Eastern Cape Sunshine Coast, about 130 km west of Gqeberha and 180 km east of East London. It is part of the Ndlambe Local Municipality in the Sarah Baartman District. The town has a population of just over 5,000, with the adjacent township of Ekuphumleni adding another 3,600. It calls itself the Barefoot Capital of the Sunshine Coast, which tells you something about how seriously it takes its own brand.

The beaches are the anchor. Kariega Main Beach is Blue Flag certified, wide, clean, and gently shelved for swimming. Shelly Bay, tucked between rocky cliffs and best visited at low tide, is consistently described as one of the hidden beaches on the South African coast. Bushman's Beach is expansive and reliably empty. Between the two rivers, the town has more beachfront access per resident than most places on the coast.

The Kariega River is navigable upstream for about 16 km through riverine forest. You can launch a boat from the main beach and motor upstream into the Sibuya Game Reserve, where elephant and giraffe come down to the river bank. That is a remarkable thing to be able to do from a main-street boat launch. The Kariega is also used for water skiing and kayaking. The Bushman's River adds another stretch of quiet water for paddling and fishing.

The town has avoided the overdevelopment that has defined neighbouring Port Alfred. There are no high-rise hotels and no commercial strip. Residents still greet each other in the street. The pace is unhurried and the setting is genuinely pretty. Kenton has that rare quality of being a genuinely good town rather than a town trying to look like one.