Not a quiet walk

The plan was to walk Stages 4,5,6 and on until dawn. I thought it was going to be quiet but when we arrived at the beginning it turns out a couple of hundred had the same idea!
It appears 6.30 pm was the start time for the 45km midnight express run starting from Stage 4. They were going as far as the end of Stage 8. So we had lots of company at the beginning and it was really nice to see trails of lights ahead and behind us...There was also checkpoints with watet.
In the end, we walked until 2am to the end of Stage 6. There were no monleys but wild pigs and dogs and it was strangely enjoyable walking in a wee circle of light. There was no looking ahead to see how far or how high we had to go. We were only focussing on the immediate 5 feet.