(S/E) Cross Gara Bridge and turn right, following the road until you reach cottages at Hothole Wood. Take care on this section of the road.
(1) Turn right at Hothole Cottages, following the Public Footpath sign, and walk to the right of the cottages onto the footpath that follows a track into the woods. Follow the footpath through the fields and woods, following the meandering line of the River Avon. After crossing a small stream, the path climbs up to a kissing gate at the road above the house still marked as Stretchney on the map, but now known as Hepburn House.
(2) Turn right onto a minor road and follow this road past the Butterford Mill Gate junction until you reach an unnamed junction with a triangular traffic island. Turn right towards Diptford Cott, go over the old railway bridge and follow the road down to Bickham Bridge and then straight on past the cottages on your left at the first junction.
(3) Only a few yards later, turn right onto a narrow road signposted "To Unmetalled Road", and follow it past Broadley Farm, where the asphalt road becomes an unsurfaced lane - one of Devon's many 'green lanes'.
(4) At clearing that forms a junction in the track, carry straight on south-east through the woods.
(5) The track turns to the left and heads uphill, but you should take the "Miller's Path" bridlepath to the right, and follow it down through the woods. The official path runs alongside (not on!) and then high above the track bed of the former Kingsbridge branch line. Follow the bridlepath all the way back to the main road at Gara Bridge. (S/E)