About Munano

Andrew Sardanis came to what was then Northern Rhodesia from Cyprus in 1950, aged 19. He joined the independence movement and in 1962 stood for Parliament in Kabompo, in North-Western Province. In the late 1970s he began Chaminuka, which means “small hill”, as a refuge for wildlife.

In 1991 he built Munano for his family, on a ridge in the north-west of the reserve above the lake. The chalets are named after the peoples of North-Western Province.

Andrew’s son Stelios went on to lead Chaminuka, and it was Stelios who brought Munano back. He saw that his family’s old retreat could become a bush camp, and set about reviving it so that guests could stay where the Sardanis family once did.

He carried his father’s work forward at Chaminuka, caring for the reserve, the people who work there and the story of the place. The camp as you find it today is very much his doing. Stelios died in August 2026, and Munano carries on in his memory.

Chaminuka plants more than a thousand trees every year. The camp runs on solar power, and the barbecues only burn wood from trees that have already fallen.

Drinking water comes from an underground spring inside the reserve. It’s bottled by Kaposhi and certified by the Zambia Bureau of Standards.

Munano sits in the north-west corner of the Chaminuka Nature Reserve in Chongwe, about 45 minutes from Lusaka’s airport. The reserve is miombo woodland, grassland and lakes, with more than 70 species of animal.

Chaminuka also has one of Zambia’s largest private collections of African art, and makes its own cheese under the Kaposhi name. Both are part of a stay at Munano.