walkabout

Noun

walkabout (plural walkabouts)

1. (Australia) 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.1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 6
2. A walking trip.
3. (UK) 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...September 8 2022, Stephen Bates, “Queen Elizabeth II obituary”, in The Guardian
4. An absence, usually from a regular place with a possibility of a return.