I used to do a lot of sea-fishing for some years, for three months of the year i would spend two or three nights each week on a beach hoping for a cod (or something) to bite the bait i'd hurled out into the North Sea.
One particular night i drove to the coast and walked down to Dirty Wall, an area of beach to fish from about a mile-and-a-half south of Aldeburgh. Carrying all the gear required for a night's fishing doesn't make for an easy stroll, at least, not along a shingle bank. There was no moon. When i got there, others were fishing further to the South, a lamp was at Orford Point. I never did feel the need to walk that far, around three miles or more.

The tide was slack, and there was nothing doing at around three in the morning, i think i'd caught a couple of whiting, and hadn't had a bite for a while, so i thought i'd pack up and go home.

The anglers at the Point had packed up and were walking along the sea wall (the shingle bank), and passed behind me just before i'd finished packing up. I think we traded comments, "Bugger all about tonight" sort of thing, but they never stopped, just slowed as we spoke, then continued. I couldn't actually see them, only the parts that were lit by the Tilleys, from about the waist down.

All i had to do at this point was to pack up the umbrella, rods, rod-rest and lamp-holder into their carrying bag, put it, and the ruck-sack on my back, pick up the Tilley and climb up the shingle to the level walkway on top.

When i got there - one to two minutes later - there was nothing between myself and Slaughden, this end of the Aldeburgh "beach". It was, if i recall right, around a 45 - 50 minute walk from where i was back to the car-park, there were no lights between me and there.

I stopped and stood still - even if they'd put their Tilleys out, i was close enough to be able to hear them walking, but all was silent and shingle is noisy. I even went to look over the other side of the track, to see if they'd gone down that side. A foolish thought, no-one would be walking those marshes in pitch dark, unless it was absolutely necessary.