Letting slip the secret of the wonderful Wolds Way

Those hilltops, the wooded slopes, the steep-sided, secluded valleys and the rich heritage - ancient market towns, the deserted medieval village of Wharram Percy - make this one of the most special corners of Yorkshire.

Best of all, for many locals, is the fact that the Wolds remain relatively undiscovered. No danger here of encountering the queues of walkers you can sometimes come across in popular areas of the Dales or North York Moors in the summer. The Wolds are Yorkshire's undiscovered gem, our hidden secret.

At least, they were. But now polar explorer and adventurer Paul Rose is about to change all that with a two-part documentary for the BBC. In The Yorkshire Wolds way, the first part of which airs on Saturday on BBC Two, he walks the length of what is one of Britain's least-known national trails: 79 miles of gently rolling chalk hills and deep, hidden valleys stretching in a half circle from the Humber Bridge in the south northwards through the Wolds to Filey.

So is he going to apologise for giving away our hidden secret?

He laughs in protest on the other end of the telephone. "It deserves to be better known!" he says.

A typical Wolds valley

And so it does. The Yorkshire Wolds Way was officially opened almost 35 years ago, in October 1982. But it is a very different kind of trail from some of its more famous rivals such as The Pennine Way. As the Wolds Way website puts it, this is a special - and wonderfully peaceful - corner of the world.

"A first time visit to the Yorkshire Wolds often comes as a surprise," it says. "The peace and quiet of the area brings a welcome respite from the pressures of everyday life. This is a very special landscape. Here lies chalk, shaped over millions of years into a combination of hidden and lush green dry chalk valleys and wide open field tops, where the views stretch out for miles and miles.

"Along the way you will discover how the rich layers of countryside are complemented by the heritage of the Yorkshire Wolds, such as the parkland of Londesborough and the deserted medieval village of Wharram Percy. And let’s not forget the wildlife – as in any visit you are almost sure to spot hares on the ground and red kites in the sky." Not to mention, if you know where and when to look for them, barn owls, tawny owls, badgers, foxes and much, much more...

It was the peaceful quality of the Yorkshire Wolds that most struck Paul Rose, however.

Striding out: Paul Rose at Filey Brigg near the end of the walk

He walked the route in bursts over the period of a few weeks, timing his walks tom meet interesting people along the way.

This is a man who spent ten years as base commander of the Rothera Research Station in Antarctica - a mountain and polar guide who has led crossings of the Greenland ice cap and has dived deep into the icy waters off the South Pole.

So the Wolds Way wasn't going to stretch him physically. "It's not a tough physical challenge," he admits. "It is well looked after, well-signposted. There's aren't huge hills around every corner. But there are lovely surprises. It is beautiful, and totally relaxing."

In his overseas challenges, he tends to push himself to the limit. and he often does that when he comes back to the UK, too - competing with himself to see how quickly he can complete a walk.

He did none of that in the Wolds, however. Almost to his surprise, he found himself slowing down, adjusting himself to the pace of this secluded bit of Yorkshire, taking things in and appreciating them. "I lay down in a field of flowers, and I was just smelling them," he says. "That was something I had never done before."

During the course of his walk, he also went out of his way to meet some of the people living and working in the Wolds. People like Thixendale wildlife artist Robert Fuller, who took him out owl-spotting.

Paul moth collecting

He rowed a vintage boat across the Humber, collected moths the Victorian way at Nunburnholme, hid in a nuclear bunker at Duggleby and, with the help of enthusiast Tony Huntington, learned how to ride a penny farthing near South Cave. "That was great fun," he says. "In fact, I enjoyed it to the point that the next week I went out and bought one!"

He also got to meet the winner of the 2016 Kiplingcotes Derby, who 'inadvertently won the race because her horse bolted!'

Right at the end of the walk, he got to camp out for the night on top of Bempton Cliffs. But perhaps one of the most enjoyable things was getting to fly over the whole route of the walk, thanks to a trip with the Pocklington Glider Club.

Paul on a penny farthing

His two-part documentary about the route, and the people he met while walking it, begins on BBC Two on Saturday.

It was, he says, the most refreshing adventure he's done in years.

"It is definitely in my top 10 favourite landscapes in the world," he says. "I really hope our documentary encourages more people to explore this unsung gem.”

H'mm, yes. That's precisely what we're worried about...

• The first part of Yorkshire Wolds Way airs on BBC Two on Saturday (May 13) at 7.30pm. Part two airs on Saturday May 20 at 8pm