Joanne Husain explores Trinidad’s northeastern forest through Bajnath’s Estate.
Opposite the popular Salybia Beach on Trinidad’s rugged northeastern coast is an unassuming road that meanders into the lush landscapes of the Matura National Park. With a few residences at the start, this road gradually ascends through shady bamboo groves and forest. The treeline opens here and there, revealing stunning vistas of untouched parts of the Northern Range.
The road ends at the trailhead to Rio Seco waterfall, but the very last property before this is where you’ll find Bajnath’s Estate.
Nature’s own carnival band greets you at the bottom of the steep driveway. Here is Hummer’s Lane, a carefully curated garden with vervain, lantana, heath, heliconia, cosmos and zinnia interspersed with artificial nectar feeders. Tiny prismatic bodies take centre stage. Come alive with the rhythmic flutter of their wings – the buzz of hundreds of hummingbirds is electric! Sometimes, wings are not feathered but scaled – butterflies and moths also abound.
Adjacent to the hummingbird garden are some fruit feeders frequented by tanagers and honeycreepers.
[caption id="attachment_1079372" align="alignnone" width="1024"] This bay-headed tanager with a distinct blue breast is a sub-species that has not been documented in Trinidad. Bay-headed tanagers on Trinidad are typically green-breasted. This bird was photographed at the fruit feeders from Sapodilla House. - Josh Bajnath[/caption]
It’s easy to be mesmerised, forgetting time while sitting among the flowers and feeders, but there is much more to experience at Bajnath’s Estate. The feeders line the way to Sapodilla Lodge, a quaint, rustic, and completely off-grid two-storey wooden house built around a sapodilla tree.
The house sits atop a ridge with views of verdant valleys and hills all around. This is the base for all visits to the estate, where you can savour a home-cooked meal and a hot cup of cocoa tea, or simply relax in one of the hammocks.
A small family-run operation with Josh Bajnath at the forefront, the estate currently welcomes day visitors by appointment only. His family constructed Sapodilla Lodge on the estate about 15 years ago as their personal getaway.
[caption id="attachment_1079371" align="alignnone" width="1024"] The tufted coquette is a target species for even the most casual of birders. Almost bee-sized, it is Trinidad and Tobago’s smallest bird and one of the tiniest in the world. - Josh Bajnath[/caption]
Growing up visiting the estate, Josh is very attuned to the forest, and can be described as a self-taught naturalist.
He recalls seeing birding tourists for the first time in his life along the Arima-Blanchisseuse Road as a young adult while working at his first land-surveying job. This piqued his interest in wild birds, and he started to actively landscape for and feed them, eventually photographing them on the estate.
Josh also explains that during the covid19 pandemic, relatives and friends would arrange estate visits to get some respite from be
