In Search of Paragrant Bay

(Views amidst the Northern Range of Mountains.)

The video I made about the location and adventure I am writing about today, went viral on tiktok. This is important as I was able to inform a large portion of the population of this hidden gem that which they had no idea even existed before! We were on a random road trip up in the northern range of mountains in Trinidad. With nowhere in particular to go, we stopped off at a random place to take in the views of the valleys below. The northern range is known for its cold air (cold for Caribbean people anyways) and slopes that pierce the clouds. It honestly feels like another country. They always say that random aimless roadtrips end up supplying the best memories but little did we know that this would be one of the best memories we ever had!

(Chatting away in the beautiful countryside amongst the mountains)

While chatting with each other and enjoying the views and nice weather a friendly old man who lived nearby was passing by and asked us if we were looking for adventure. He informed us of a trail nearby that lead to a hidden beach that was secluded and not well know. Being the adventurous folk that we were, we jumped on the opportunity to explore new, not well known areas. We quickly packed up headed in the direction mentioned to us to attempt to visit this hidden treasure.

(The group of hikers and their dog at the beginning of the trail)

We followed the old man's directions and found the entrance of the trail. Only now while typing this I realize that listening to a stranger to go find secluded areas may not have been a smart idea but he was telling the truth and if we had not done this we would have missed out on such a magnificent experience. At the beginning though, we had no idea where we were going on the trail but seemingly by fate, a group of hikers zoomed passed us and we decided to follow them!

We hiked for an hour and half, tired as hell but the views along the way was amazing and beckoned us further. The inclines were the steepest I have ever seen. I couldn't fathom the walk back up! As we continued I kept looking at how high we were above the ocean, still, in the distance and I then and there it hit me even though I kinda knew, it was not really truly understood. We got ourselves into walking down an actual MOUNTAIN side. We were still so high up and probably had a LOT more to go!

At this point I decided to open google maps and check how long we had again via walking. To my dismay, it estimated around another hour's walk. We were already so close to our goal we resolved to not give up. The way the old man told us about this place, he said it was just a 10 minute easy walk NOT A WHOLE HIKE! Later on after posting our adventure on social media, commenters told me that this was one of the most DIFFICULT hikes in the country! Boy were we in over our heads, but we kept at it!

I'm not going to lie, we walked for about half an hour again going down what felt like 90 degree slopes and just decided to call it quits when a good samaritan passed by with an offroad 4x4 and took pity on us! He literally saved us in that moment and we hopped aboard in the tray of his van for the rest of the way! What luck!

(Look at us, trying to hold on for dear life during the shaky ride, ready to pass out from tiredness)

There were no paved roadways here so the ride was insanely bumpy, so much so that we had to hang on for dear life! There were points where some of us were almost flung from within the van tray! It was such a relief to not have to walk to rest of the way and I immediately planned to ask to the guy for a drop back up as well because I was pretty sure we would not at all be able to walk up those slopes.

We drove for around 15 minutes thereafter making us count our blessings as the walk would have been even longer and more arduous! Finally we smelt and heard the ocean and there was a feeling of pure satisfaction and pride that we actually made it! If it were not for the man giving us a drop we would not have made it.

The bay was everything we imagined it to be! Secluded and mostly all to ourselves! We later on learned that it was called Paragrant Bay. The waters were a beautiful emerald green and as if the beautiful shores and cliff faces were not enough, there was a mini waterfall and stream just at the entrance! There was so much to explore and take in, all of our tiredness trauma of what we just went through just melted away! On either side of there were mountainous peninsulas that just made the whole location feel so exotic and alien to us, like from another planet. It is such a weird feeling!

(This was the first time I had even been to a beach that was so mountainous on either side)

(An aerial view of the entire bay, as you can see it is all mountain to the way down!)

After taking an exhilarating bath in the new found waters, I dried off, changed and sent up the drone to see what else I could explore and find. I was not at all disappointed. I got some amazing shots with views that depicted the mountainous peninsulas.

An eastward view from the bay)

Flying westwards, along the coastline from Paragrant Bay, I saw amazing scenes as if from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean (well we are in the Caribbean I guess). I immediately became filled with imaginations of pirate ships hiding along the coves and land formations that I saw while flying along. Who knows what actual treasures are hidden within those forested untraversable areas! When I posted the above shot on social media, most of the comments from my fellow countrymen were about how they could not believe this was Trinidad!

(A southern facing view of the previous pirate looking coves)

Paragrant Bay had so much hidden gems and wonderful finds and I was astonished to know that when I posted everything on TikTok as a short video that went insanely viral in my country, the majority of people (including me) did not know this bay existed. This was surprising to us Trinidadians as we are a beach going people who love the ocean. I was happy to have so many people (via the viral video) be informed about the wonderful location. If it were not for the small miracles that happened along the way though, this may not have happened!