s2h
I went this route in 1997 (a year or so before 4HP, he always was a bit slow
) and as it happens I used Bristol's notes for the Navs. I found them absolutely excellent, far far superior to the PPSC notes I had to use for the Techs (because Bristol didn't have Tech notes at that stage). I've never seen the Jepp notes so can't comment on them, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Bristol's notes to you. And they were quite happy for me to submit assignments via fax, and to return them to me the same way (I guess email would be the way to go these days) - PPSC resolutely refused to consider this.
I did the studying on my own in Cape Town, and just went over to write the exams - ie no "brush up" course or anything. Luckily I managed to get through all 14 first time, but I did write the Navs and Techs separately, if you're thinking of doing them all together then a crammer/brush up is probably a good idea.
When it came to the flight test I spent a few days in the sim and flying the aeroplane (Seneca, which I'd never flown before) at Bristol Flight School before doing the flight test. Again, made it first time, but I doubt whether I would have done so without those few sessions beforehand - written exams are the same as SA, but the flight test certainly has some of it's own peculiarities! There's no longer a link between Bristol Ground and Bristol Flight, but again I found Bristol Flight extremely helpful and professional - I only had 4 days to do the flying side of things and they went out of their way to help. I think it's still the same management there, so I expect things are still the same. (Top tip - in order to "open" your UK license you need to do a type rating on a G reg aeroplane - I used the Seneca and the IR Flight Test, but nearly got caught out by the fact that you have to do 3 night landings as well. We only realised that on the last day I was there! Fortunately it was winter and the sun set about 1630, so I managed to squeeze it in before dashing back to LHR!!)
The whole excercise - exams/pre-test training/flight test cost me most of £5000 - including about £1000 in various fees to the CAA! - but as you say, it has to be done, so you just have to bite the bullet.
I operate LHR-JNB most months, if you have trouble getting hold of the books PM me and maybe we can make a plan. I'm on leave for most of next month though, so probably won't be on a JNB again till May.
Good luck with it all
t