Connecting the Penguin Cradle Trail (PCT) with the Overland Track (OLT) links together two well known remote and demanding trails.
Both trails are described within FKT routes and through the North-West Walking Club (NWWC) and Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service websites.
This combined route is challenging for several reasons: distance covered, remoteness, number of ranges traversed, exposure to weather, trail surface and access restrictions on the Overland Track.
The PCT-OLT route leaves Penguin and traverses the Dial Range (using the traditional route variation described by the NWWC), Leven Canyon and Black Bluff range to reach the Cradle Mountain tourism area, before following a board-walked track beside the Dove River to reach Ronney's Creek - the start of the Overland Track.
From Ronney's Creek, the Overland Track climbs past Crater Lake and Marion's Lookout to travel around the exposed alpine cirque of Cradle Mountain. As the track nears Barn Bluff it descends down into Waterfall Valley and goes out across alpine Moors past Lake Windemere and Pine Forest Moor. The track descends down to Frog Flats on the Forth River before rising back up to the button grassed Pelion Plains. Climbing through rainforest the track reaches the Pelion Gap (turn off to Mount Ossa - Tasmania';s highest mountain) before descending again down a valley overshadowed by the Du Cane Range. Travelling through myrtle forests (filled with slippery roots and mud) the track climbs to the Du Cane Gap before opening up into Eucalypt forest during the descent to Lake St Clair. Whilst walkers may take the ferry here, the journey continues for another 18 km around Australia's deepest lake to reach the visitor centre at Cynthia Bay on the southern side of Lake St Clair.
