A separate building houses the museum. Still interesting despite the dust and pillaging, it is in desperate need of refurbishment. All of this overlooks a biscuit-coloured beach and the sparkling turquoise and teal of the crystal cool lake. Across the water, forested and rocky islands look like heaped mohair blankets on biscuit bases, and the air is full of cormorants, kingfishers, fish eagles, wagtails, hamerkops and more. It's a crescent of beach running from Otter Point to Chembe Lodge, and right in the middle of that is the enclave village of Chembe.
Conservative estimates say five thousand people.
Less optimistic are estimates of eight and ten thousand. All of them are supported by fishing, though the dusty relics of hand-hoed sandy fields between the village and the road show attempts at cultivation. This is the driest area of Malawi, and cultivation practices have not yet evolved to the use of animal-drawn ploughs, let alone irrigation. The turned sand sifts to the water's edge and reedbeds are showing the initiation of a delta. It's an organic, erratic area of dwellings and fish-drying racks, tiny restaurants and the occasional tourist lodge, like Fat Monkeys, The Gap, Chembe Lodge and others.