walkabout
A period, often extended, during which an Aboriginal person left a station or settlement to travel on country, typically seasonally or for traditional cultural reasons; a journey by foot taken by an Aboriginal as a temporary withdrawal from white society.
The police picked him up, reared him, and he had been a tracker ever since, except for periodical walk-abouts.
A walking trip.
A public stroll by some celebrity to meet a group of people informally.
While the world altered dramatically during the course of her reign, the monarchy did too, though rather more imperceptibly: the walkabouts that increasingly characterised royal appearances, the pop concerts at Buckingham Palace, the throwing open of the royal palaces to visitors – even the paying of income tax, and royal podcasts – would have been inconceivable as innovations at the time Elizabeth came to the throne.
An absence, usually from a regular place with a possibility of a return.
Where it comes from
Deverbal from walk about, originally in Australian Pidgin English.
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry walkabout (CC BY-SA 4.0).