Shitlakhet soundscape
Nayalap consists of 2 properties located about 3km and 9km from Shitlkahet. The first is nestled atop the pristine Kumaoni village of Salla Rautela. The property includes luxuriously cozy tents set up in a clearing surrounded by oak and rhododendron trees. The other comprises Earth Homes overlooking the Shitlakhet valley and ridge. The Shitlakhet soundscape is such that the mornings and nights are so quiet that the wind rustling the pine needles sounds almost like ocean waves.
On a windy day, you can hear the wind before you feel it, and the quiet of the night is only broken by the faint sound of the village dogs barking or the faint banging of the metal utensils that the villagers use to keep away the animals from their small patches of vegetables. The clear night sky is host to a dazzling array of stars, which mirrors the lights of Almora that are visible on the distant horizon on the ground. The summer night is often punctuated by the sound of some bird that chirps away, whose name is a mystery for an accomplished birder to solve!
What birds does one usually see at Shitlakhet
The blue whistling thrush and the Khaleej Pheasants are regulars at Shitlakhet. Apart from this, there’s the black headed jay, a host of finches and the Red Billed Blue Magpie.
The mornings are a host of different sounds, starting with the black birds known as the thrush,
scurrying around looking for acorns. The village slowly wakes up, and the cattle go to graze. And
then the faraway sounds of the schoolchildren singing. If it is quiet you are after, then in Nayalap
your thoughts would seem like noise after a while. To be able to soak in such calm is
meant for the sages that Kumaon has had a history of being home to, and each moment spent here
ingeminates its name as ‘dev bhoomi’!