Takob Akob Falls, Maliau Basin

What Takob Akob Falls is

A single drop of 38 metres, the tallest in the conservation area. Where Maliau Falls is a stepped seven-tier cascade, Takob Akob is one sheer fall, which makes it the more dramatic of the two in a photograph even though it is far less famous.

It sits within reach of Nepenthes Camp, roughly 3.5 kilometres away, in lower montane forest on the western side of the trekking loop.

How to reach Takob Akob Falls

Only on the five-day trekking itinerary, and only as an option. It is offered as a two to three hour return walk from Nepenthes Camp on the afternoon of the first trekking day.

That timing is the problem. You reach Nepenthes after 7.5 kilometres and about five hours of the steepest sustained climbing on the entire loop — a day operators rate as challenging. The offer of another two to three hours on your feet arrives exactly when most people are least inclined to take it.

Not on the four-day trek

The four-day itinerary substitutes Giluk Falls, about 3 kilometres each way from the same camp, on the same afternoon. You cannot do both on a standard package, so if Takob Akob is the draw, book the five-day.

The walk from Nepenthes Camp to Takob Akob Falls

Takob Akob sits off the main loop, reached by a side trail from Nepenthes Camp at 945 metres. Operators quote it as a two to three hour return, offered on the afternoon of the second day of the 5D4N trek — after the 7.5 kilometre climb up from Agathis that most people rate as the hardest leg of the whole loop.

That timing is the whole story of why so many trekkers skip it. You arrive at Nepenthes early afternoon, wet through, having climbed most of a vertical kilometre, and the guide offers another two or three hours on foot. The group that says yes is usually the group that decided in advance it would.

The trail runs through the montane heath forest that makes this part of the basin distinctive: stunted trees on sandstone, pitcher plants in the open patches, mossy ground that never dries. It is not technically difficult, but it is another dose of the same terrain on tired legs, and it comes back to camp near dusk.

Takob Akob compared with Maliau Falls

The two are different things and it helps to know which you care about.

• Maliau Falls is a seven-tiered cascade, wide and stepped, reached on both trekking packages from Ginseng Camp. It is the photograph everyone has seen and the destination the whole loop is built around.
• Takob Akob is a single vertical drop of 38 metres — the tallest in the basin — into a narrow plunge pool. Fewer people see it in a year than see Maliau Falls in a busy month. It is the one that rewards having gone the extra distance.

If you can only do one trek and Takob Akob matters to you, the choice is made for you: it appears on the 5D4N package only. The 4D3N trek uses that afternoon for Giluk Falls instead.