Downhill from Albaston, the minor road towards riverside fields passes under Darkey Lane railway bridge, which carries the Tamar Valley Line towards its terminus at Gunnislake. On this unusually clear morning, the sun glistens on dewy pastures and casts long blue tree shadows down frosted banks; beyond the winding loops of the river, Morwell Wood and precipitous rocks remain in shade.
Fallen leaves have been washed into drifts along the steep lanes, and hedge banks remain green with pennywort, ferns, ivy and emerging cow parsley, all overhung with sparse, gilded leaves of oak, beech and hazel. Past Oakenhayes House and Slimeford Farm, Calstock’s church tower is silhouetted among trees on the southern horizon, where a two-carriage train crosses another bridge on the sinuous single-track line from Plymouth.
