The lane into Dunstone runs for not quite half a mile and for the most part it accompanies the eastern perimeter of the mysterious Depot. Dunstone is small though charming. It has no facilities, however. Go straight on at the green and continue along the road as far as a prominent right-hand bend just beyond the far end of the village.

Turn left here onto a right of way. You need an up to date map with you - the path apparently used to follow the edge of the pasture but has been diverted. Walk uphill, heading more or less northeast, leaving Splatt Farm well to your left. You're heading for a junction of hedges at which there's a stile - you should find it easily enough, about 200 metres south of the northeastern corner of the pasture. It's a decent spot for a morning refreshment break and features a good view back towards Yealmpton, just a mile and a half away as the crow flies (first image below). Once across the stile follow the field edge (second image below) to another stile (third image below), turn right and walk uphill for a short distance to another field boundary, then turn left again along the contour.

After you cross the next stile into a further pasture, follow the field boundary for about 250 metres then turn half right across the pasture. Follow another field boundary downhill (first picture below) into a short green lane (second picture) heading to a road near Ramsland Farm.

Turn left onto the road. There's about a mile of road walking to come but the route's a little intricate. You approach Butland Wood. After about 500 metres, at the point where the road runs into the wood, turn right onto a narrower lane heading uphill. Shortly afterwards go straight on at a crossroads (pictured below).

The lane onward from the crossroads is narrower and quieter, and it leads through Flete Wood. The lane, like some we followed yesterday, is fairly typical of back roads in this part of Devon. It runs fairly straight, but very narrowly, through tree cover and high banks.

At the next junction the main road curves away to the right. We go to the left here, and almost immediately the lane forks into two - take the left fork. It's difficult to describe but obvious enough from the map. Your new lane, even narrower now, runs downhill and comes to an area with open pastures on the left and woodland on the right.

This area appears to be part of the estate of a country mansion called Flete, about half a mile to the east. The lane runs downhill to a nameless group of cottages. At the point where you cross a substantial track (first image above) the map is a little ambiguous; it suggests that you should continue straight on alongside the wood, but the correct route doglegs slightly, right then left, into a little tunnel of woodland (second picture above). The next few hundred metres is very similar to the route out of Yealmpton this morning, partly alongside pastures and partly through ribbons of woodland. After crossing a small brook the route runs slightly uphill and then becomes confined between hedges.

The lane, still bound by hedges, tends downhill again. It comes into the open quite suddenly, at which point you cross a pasture on the diagonal (second picture above) to come out onto the main road near Hollowcombe Cross. The road is busy, a bit of a culture shock after today's back lanes, but fortunately a parallel right of way has been provided alongside the field edges on the north side of the road; cross a stile (third image above) for access.

The sequence of field paths runs eastwards alongside the road for about half a kilometre, crossing a lane, to reach the river Earme at Sequers Bridge.

Another bit of potential confusion here. The map shows two possible routes for the Earme-Plym Trail north of Sequers Bridge, one each side of the Earme. The waymarks, however, are quite firm - the correct route is along the east bank. Cross the bridge and take the stile and steps off to the left, then walk diagonally across the pasture towards Sexton farm.

Sexton turns out to be quite a large cluster of cottages and barns. Follow the track through the middle and then follow the waymarks.

Once the track gives out you run alongside a pasture then cross another to the far northeast corner. From the stile here there is a fine view across the Earme to Ermington (third image below). I chose this spot to have lunch when I walked the route in June '05.

A large, sloping pasture lays before you. Walk downhill and across, heading initially for the corner of a group of trees (first image below) then generally towards the screen of vegetation running alongside the river. You pass Ermington on the other bank. Keeping close by the riverbank now, cross three more pastures to come out onto a road by a house named Fawns.

At the road, turn left and walk a few paces west (towards Ermington) but just before the riverbridge turn right onto a back lane heading for the locality of Strode (third image above).

The back lane to Strode provides a pleasant and uneventful kilometre. It runs mostly uphill and is fringed by banks and tree cover. Just after Strode another lane merges from the right. At the hilltop the road bends to the right but our route now follows a public footpath half left. Two footpaths diverge from here - take the one furthest left, which runs along the southwest edge of a high hedge. The wealth of detail on the map hereabouts is confusing, the field boundary is not obvious on older editions, and the path is not marked as the Earme-Plym Trail from the road. This is a recipe for routefinding problems and I lost my way quite spectacularly here. The trick is to stick to the field edge and follow it around a right-hand curve, where you will find a gate into the next pasture.

These pastures appear to be part of the grounds of Thornham farm, which lays across the river. Frankly, the waymarks could be a lot better here. Having arrived in the second pasture from the road, cross it in a west-northwest direction (first picture above). Head initially for the corner of another field that juts into ours from the northwest - all the field boundaries hereabouts are formed of hedges and trees so the field shapes as shown on the map are not terribly obvious on the ground. There's a small barn just proud of this field corner to the right, half hidden among trees; leave this well to your right and start along the field boundary to the west, but at a power line pole (second image above) turn right into the next pasture. Cross this on the diagonal to reach a gate into yet another pasture (third image above).

I lost count of the pastures here and thought I was one gate behind, an easy mistake to make when you've already got lost twice in the last few hundred metres. A prominent path runs diagonally across the next pasture in the same direction we've just come from but this is not the correct route; instead, stick to the right-hand field boundary and follow it on its left side. About fifty metres in you will pass a footpath marker, which would have been more usefully sited back at the gate. 

After some 200 metres the pasture widens and the field boundary you've been following veers off to the right; ignore it now, keeping straight ahead. Make for the far northeast corner of the field. Go onwards into the next field and follow the edge of it all the way to the far end, where you come out onto another road.

This is Lower Keaton. Walk along the road to the northwest for 200 metres (first image above), coming to a junction with a rather pretty little cottage adjacent (second image above). Turn left and walk alongside manicured hedges towards the riverbridge. Just short of the bridge (first image below) turn right into an access driveway running along the river bank (second image below). At the far end of this driveway our route reverts to a footpath (third image below) that runs initially alongside the river. Soon afterwards the river meanders off to the left and the footpath continues ahead, firstly through a ribbon of trees, and subsequently along the eastern edge of a huge pasture.

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