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 Four groups of twelve hippies sitting in circles. Some sheep grazing. And a large concrete tower with some shaky scaffolding tenuously attached to it. Those were my first impressions of the community of Tvind that I visited in the summer of 1977. Tvind in Denmark’s west Jutland region was an experiment in alternative schooling that included the concept of a travelling scho

 PHOTO: Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve. ## The De Rust WaterWise Ways project is showing the way. This article first appeared in [Western Cape Business](https://web.archive.org/web/20200918133008/https://www.globalafricanetwork.com/) 2020 Edition A pilot project in the small rural town of De Rust has shown that a constructed wetland system and wastewater reuse can improve the health of a catch

 We have pure canola in the tank. [The Nordic Folk Centre for Renewable Energy](https://web.archive.org/web/20200918124552/https://www.visitdenmark.com/denmark/explore/nordic-folkecenter-renewable-energy-gdk606263), Thy. PHOTO: John Young ## Denmark has found a way to grow its economy and reduce energy consumption. The House of Green in central Copenhagen is a sophisticated,

John Young explores the social ‘season’ of London’s cricket crowds. *This article first appeared in The Weekender, 2008.* There is a small patch of grass in west London that on one day of the year assumes an importance vastly disproportionate to its size. This is the Coronation Garden in the Lord’s cricket ground. On the Saturday of the Lord’s Test match this little plot – no bigger than a tennis court – becomes the focus of the English Season. This is where the great and the

*A national focus on trying to develop the country’s maritime potential is playing to KwaZulu-Natal’s strengths*.  Viking Sun, 2019 Two of the most important ports in South Africa are at the heart of KwaZulu-Natal’s central position in the nation’s transport and logistics network. As the second-biggest contributor (16%) to national gross domestic product (GDP) after Gauteng and a major m

 When a little town north of Copenhagen was buffeted by a once-in-a-generation flood, the estimated cost of building canals and dams to prevent it happening again was put at 100-million Danish Kroner. Even for a rich country, R200-million is a lot of money to fix a stream – and for something that not might not happen again in a lifetime. By taking a holistic approach, engineerin

 *John Young discovered in Copenhagen earlier this year that although Danes appreciate good design of all kinds, they can’t stop loving the chair.* First published in Sunday Times, 17 August 2014. Denmark has a well-deserved reputation as the home of seriously good design. Modern Danish architects such as Bjarke Ingels have earned high praise for their daring apartment blocks in southern C

The cemetery at Castiglioni dei Pepoli is carefully tended and looks out over a tranquil valley. PHOTO: John Young A town high in the mountains between Florence and Bologna has not forgotten how South African soldiers saved its citizens from murderous Gestapo troops. *First published in Business Day, 21 September 2017.* South Africans get a special welcome in Castiglione dei Pepoli, a town high in the Apennine mountains half-way between Bologna and Florence. There is probably

The boyhood home of CLR James. PHOTO: John Young. *First published in [Wisden Cricket Monthly](https://web.archive.org/web/20200918133121/https://www.wisden.com/wisden-cricket-monthly), May 2015.* *There is a C.L.R. James Institute in New York and a library in the London borough of Hackney but it’s hard to find signs of the author of cricket’s greatest book in his home town. John Young searched high and low.* “Tunapuna at the beginning of this century was a small town of abo

 Temba Bavuma often returns to inspire Langa’s young cricketers but for them to advance in the game, their schools will need support. PHOTO: John Young *First published in [Mail & Guardian](https://web.archive.org/web/20210725090821/https://mg.co.za/author/john-young-author) 29 April 2016.* Sports’ Minister Fikile Mbalula’s announcement this week that prominent sporting codes may not bid

The late Bob Woolmer always believed in Paul Adams as an attacking force. The former Protea coach watches net practice on the 1998 tour of England at Arundel. Adams is next to Alan Donald, whose 330 test wickets came at a strike rate of 47 balls per wicket. PHOTO: John Young. *First published in Cape Argus, 15 March 2002.* John Young on South Africa’s test spinner. Denys Hobson must have been smiling at Paul Adams’s return to test cricket last weekend. Soon after the Proteas

### The boxing upset of the 70s – and how the Rand Daily Mail almost lost the scoop.  IMAGE: Courtesy of South African National Library. *The Rand Daily Mail’s ‘technology-aided’ scoop on Gerrie Coetzee’s win in Monte Carlo 40 years ago almost never got to print.* Boxing was big in South Africa in the 1970s. And South Africa had some big box

 Peri is the perfect host. PHOTO: John Young. There’s really no way of getting consolation for missing out on a game of golf on one of South Africa’s finest courses. Even when no-one else on the sub-continent is playing. I was in St Francis Bay hoping to play St Francis Links on the weekend that snow was seen on Table Mountain and coastal towns everywhere were assaulted by gale f

 *This review first appeared in The Weekender, 2008.* Now that Concorde is no more, it is that much more difficult to enjoy breakfast in New York, Paris and London on successive mornings. The good news for ambitious gourmets is that there is a place only an an hour and a half’s drive from Cape Town where multi-continental breakfast cravings can be satisfied. Three re

Fuelling the imagination. Motorists in Denmark can fill up at a national monument. Arne Jacobsen’s strikingly modernist petrol station from the 1930s. PHOTO: John Young *First published in Business Day 25 January 2019.* **Country is a world leader with its take on Scandinavian design ethic.** Lovers of Paul Gauguin’s art love visiting Copenhagen, which is ironic because he lasted barely a year in the city before heading back to France. Gaugin returned once to visit his Danish

 A hotel on a train on a bridge in a game reserve. This is not the plot of a children’s story, rather it is the Kruger Shalati Development, Thebe Tourism Group’s latest accommodation offering in the Kruger National Park. PHOTO: Thebe Tourism. ## Airports Company South Africa is on a massive spending drive. More than twice as many foreign tourists will visit South Africa in 2030 th

 ## John Young meanders through Mandela and finds somewhere closed for lunch. *This article first appeared in The Weekender, 23-24 August 2008.* In this Mandela birthday month, it occurs to me that many people have had lunch *with* Mandela, many more have had lunch *for* Mandela (at fundraisers for his charities) and there has even been a book *about* lunch and Mandela (*Hunger for

## Solar-powering up a community for improved living conditions – and profit. When the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) realised that the forests on the shores of Lake George in the southern Ugandan district of Kasese were being depleted by villagers in search of wood to burn, they turned to a Danish think-tank to help them find a solution. Access²Innovation found the perfect partner in SystemTeknik, an Aalborg-based company that ironically had many years of experience of pro

*First published in Travel & Food, Sunday Times, 27 April 2008.* ## Golfing in Wales separates the men from the boys, and the sheep from the sheepish, writes John Young. Dr Johnson said that when a man is tired of London he is tired of life. He also said, “By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.” Which is two parts true and eight parts complete rubbish, as so many famous sayings are. The old cynic once wrote that he was “weary of being at home, an